It's Research
by Celianna
Summary: There was something about laughing together after you puked your guts out that made Misty feel like she enjoyed Gary's company a bit more. Gary Oak, he poisoned her, but he wasn't that bad. Not that bad at all. Egoshipping.
1. Chapter 1

**It's Research**

**Summary:** There was something about laughing together after you puked your guts out that made Misty feel like she enjoyed Gary's company a bit more. Gary Oak, he poisoned her, but he wasn't that bad. Not that bad at all.

**A/N:** Rated M for language and sexual situations (which won't happen until later in the story).

Misty and Gary are both 19 years old.

If Fanfiction dot net had a category for 'slice of life', then that's where this story would be in. 

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><p>Misty dabbled her feet in the water and sighed loudly; bored with her day already. Her pokemon were swimming around in the pool, having a lot of free time since there didn't seem to be any new challengers lately. However, that would change in about a month, then Professor Oak would be handing out new starter pokemon to ten year olds waiting to start their journey, and they would surely stop by the Cerulean Gym. Even so, only battling newbies wasn't much of a fun past time, in fact, it could get really boring. Then again, it's not like she did it every day, she and her sisters agreed to switch duties every other week with each other. This week was her turn to battle challengers, but so far, no takers.<p>

"What a crappy day," she muttered and then kicked some water in the air with her feet.

"Now Misty, I don't want to hear, like, such ugly language in the gym. Okay?" asked Daisy, her oldest sister who walked by.

The redhead merely snorted and shrugged her shoulders. She was bored, had a very uneventful day, and if she wanted to use 'bad' language, then she sure as hell was going to without anyone stopping her.

"Yeah Misty, it makes you look even uglier," retorted Violet, the one with the blue hair as she followed Daisy's footsteps.

It was all Misty could do to not sick her pokemon on them. They knew very well that she wasn't exactly happy being tied down as a gym leader, hence why she managed to talk them into a deal. A deal which meant she was the gym leader for a week, and for the other week, her sisters were the gym leaders. They'd been doing it for years, but of course, her three sisters weren't happy about it one bit.

"Hey Misty, we're going out now!" yelled out Daisy. "We're expecting Professor Oak to give us a call soon, so please pick it up!"

Misty frowned. "What does he want?"

Daisy brought a finger to her pink lips and ten shrugged. "Beats me, just pick up, will you?"

"Fine, fine. When will you be back?"

"We'll be back when we're back!" Daisy then exited the pool and went to go wherever she was going with her other sisters.

Misty finally lifted her legs out the water and returned her pokemon in her pokeballs; she was sure no one would be coming to challenge her this late still. It was already 5 PM, and she didn't feel like sticking around in the same place all day long, so Misty went to the living room where she sat and watched some tv. She flipped to the Pokemon Discovery Channel, and was pleased to see a documentary with Professor Oak in it. Misty watched half interested as Professor Oak talked about the level of care of pokemon. She was almost falling asleep on the couch when a loud commercial came on that scared her awake.

"Are you tired of these sissy gym leaders?" a loud male voice said in the commercial.

Misty glared at the screen and folded her arms. She was _not _a sissy, she was a great gym leader. It just so happened her sisters failed at fighting that contributed to trashing the Cerulean Gym's reputation.

The man continued to talk, walking into the screen. "Well, we say enough is enough! These gym leaders should toughen up, because we want a real challenge, not a hand-out!" A crowd behind him started to cheer, in agreement with the speaker.

Misty rolled her eyes; people had always been complaining that the gym leaders weren't good enough, and that they handed out their badges way too easily. Some even suggested a complete overhaul of the gym system, which was luckily shot down by the Pokemon League. She herself wasn't bad in fighting, she could still kick anyone's ass, but she did go easy on those who were battling her for the second time. Then there were gym leaders like her sisters who'd rather hand out badges like candy and go tan their bronze skin in the sun, than actually battling these trainers.

When the commercials finally ended, the documentary with Professor Oak continued, and Misty felt her eyelids become sleepy again. It had been very boring today, almost like any other day, so Misty quickly drifted off into a nap. Only a few seconds later and she woke up in surprise; the videophone was ringing. Speak of the devil, it must be Professor Oak. Misty jumped off the couch and quickly picked up the phone.

The screen flicked on and she saw the familiar Professor Oak, though much older than when he was in the documentary.

"Why hello there, Misty," he greeted with a warm smile.

"Good evening Professor Oak, what can I do for you?" she asked sweetly, always having a ton of respect for the old professor.

"I'm guessing your sisters aren't around?"

"No, they left to go do something else and told me to pick up instead. So, what can I do for you?"

"I guess you'll do as well then! Well Misty, I was going to ask if one of your sisters could come down here to Pallet Town and participate in a research about Pokemon. Since they're not here, I'll just ask you! Misty, would you like to take part in our research? It involves your pokemon and their experience with you. We needed someone experienced and close-by, so I immediately thought the Cerulean Gym would be the perfect place to look for!"

Misty blinked blankly at the new information. "Uhh," she said, not quite knowing what was going on. "What kind of research?"

"Oh there's nothing much to it, we'll just record your pokemon's physical fitness, its heart rate – that sort of stuff, and compare it to pokemon that are less experienced. Don't worry; it's completely harmless! So, what do you say, Misty?"

A chance to take a break from gym duties and do something else? Who wouldn't accept that? Misty simply smiled and nodded. "Sounds good to me!" Then she started to wonder why Professor Oak would _ever _consider her sisters to be experienced in pokemon battles. Misty shivered at the thought.

"Great! When can you get here? I'll arrange it so that you can stay over at my grandson's house while you're there. The research won't take long, maybe a few days or so."

"Hmm, well I'm on Gym duty this week, so the next possible date I'm free is next Monday, will that be alright?"

"Splendid! Be sure to bring your most experienced pokemon with you. Two will be fine."

"Alright then! You'll see me appear on Monday afternoon."

"Great! Take care, Misty."

"Bye!"

The video call ended and Misty looked up at the ceiling with a smile; something different was going to happen, about time! She'd been doing nothing but gym battles these past few years, not much traveling, and definitely no adventures anymore like when she was with Ash and Brock. Those were the days, traveling every day until your feet were sore, camping in the forest with creepy bug pokemon all around her – Misty suddenly didn't miss the old days that much anymore. They went their own ways years ago. Ash continued his quest to become a pokemon master, and has been traveling around ever since. Brock opened his own day care center and became a well known breeder. As for Misty herself, she stayed at the Cerulean Gym to battle upcoming trainers. She took part in her sister's water show every once in a while, but she didn't do much else. Every week that she would be off duty, Misty would train her pokemon, or go fishing. She basically continued that cycle until today, when she was 19 years old and hadn't done much of anything lately.

The worst thing; she had never even gotten a boyfriend or anything. After she gave up on her huge crush on Ash – the blockhead still didn't even know – she figured she'd meet someone along the way. There were a few guys who tried to ask her out, but Misty always challenged them to a battle, and only then she would agree. No one had ever won such a bet, thus she had never even gone out on a date. Maybe she was being too picky, or maybe it really didn't matter.

The next few days passed pretty fast, and Misty was ready to leave for Pallet Town. She had her trusty Gyarados and Politoad with her, they were her strongest and most experienced pokemon. With her orange bag swung over her shoulder, Misty looked back at Cerulean City, and gave it a salute before heading into the direction of Pallet Town.

Traveling to Pallet Town went _much_ faster with the new road they opened up. One that didn't lead through Viridian Forest, she was really happy about that one, she hated going through that forest. As her flip-flops hit the pavement, she started reminiscing about her childhood and how much she had traveled around. It was sort of nostalgic to be on the road again. Misty grinned; anything would be better than being stuck in Cerulean City. She threw her fist in the air, all pumped up to visit Professor Oak who she hadn't seen in years.

After at least an hour of walking on her sore feet, Misty wondered if the trip to Pallet Town had always taken this long.

"Ughh, my feet hurt, my legs hurt. How long is it going to take before I even get there?" she complained to herself.

Her nostalgia had left her, and all that stayed behind were her sore feet. She was having second thoughts, because she sure as hell didn't want to walk back again on foot. She must have been really out of shape to be tired of walking after an hour. Back in the good old days, she could walk non-stop for four hours! Misty sighed and dragged her feet with her, until she finally reached the welcome sign of Pallet Town.

"Finally! I'm here!" she cheered, extremely happy being there after walking for two hours.

Misty hadn't been there in forever, and it seemed it didn't change all that much either. She smiled brightly and headed towards Professor Oak's laboratory. The redhead looked at the big building complex; it seemed it had gotten bigger actually; there was a new room attached to the old building, and a few new chimneys. At least something changed in Pallet Town. Misty knocked on the metal doors, but found them to be open already, so she entered.

"Hello?" she called out and looked around the entrance hall. "Professor Oak! I'm here!" She dropped her bag off at the front door. She was really thirsty, so she hoped she could drink something soon.

No response. Misty entered another room, which she saw light coming from. It was a big grey and white room with a lot of machines and equipment stored in it. In the middle of the room was a desk with a computer, and a man wearing a lab coat sitting in front of it.

"Oh there you are, Professor Oak," sighed Misty in relief as she walked closer to the desk.

Professor Oak however, kept on typing away on his keyboard, ignoring her. Misty then realized that Professor Oak had spiky brown hair. She almost slapped herself in the head; that wasn't Professor Oak! How could she mistake an old man for a young man with brown and spiky hair? She walked closer and stood next to him; he was clearly ignoring her still, concentrated on the screen in front of him.

It hit her like a ton of bricks. "Gary?" she asked once she saw his face more clearly. It made sense now; this was Professor Oak's grandson, Gary Oak. She had totally forgotten that he was a pokemon researcher now as well. More correctly, she had totally forgotten he even existed. He kind of fell off the face of the earth once Misty had become a gym leader.

The young man finally stopped typing on his keyboard and looked up at her with green and unwavering eyes. Misty was taken aback by his growth; he had turned into a fine young man with great facial features. The white lab coat he was wearing made him look ten times more mature as well. It was such a difference, Misty was temporarily speechless.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice deep and confused.

Misty frowned. "What, you don't remember me? It honestly cannot be _that_ long ago since we last saw each other." Despite the fact she had totally forgotten about him.

She knew she hadn't changed that much since they last met. Her hair was now out of a ponytail and touched her shoulders, she had grown a few inches taller, acquired a bigger chest – but she didn't change _that _much that people wouldn't recognize her anymore. Her sisters liked to remind her of that.

"Right, Misty – gramps said you were dropping by today." Gary then pushed himself away from the desk, his chair rolling further onto the floor and he stood up. Misty was again surprised by his growth; he had gotten so much taller since the last time she saw his childish body. She wondered if he was still the annoying and arrogant kid from before. There weren't many good memories of him.

"Gramps isn't here; he said he was sorry but a conference meeting came up and he had to leave right away. So I'm conducting the research in his place."

Misty was bummed to not see Professor Oak in person, especially since she now had to stick around with Gary – someone who she considered a rival years ago, but right now he was practically a stranger.

"I didn't know you were a Pokemon Researcher as well," said Misty, wanting to start a conversation.

Gary started to walk away, but beckoned Misty to follow him. He lead her out into the hallway where he walked with his hands in his pockets. "I've been one since I was fourteen," he finally replied.

Misty examined him in the corner of her eye as she walked by his side. He sure did grow up very nicely. Misty then tore her eyes away from him.

"How's the gym doing?" he asked politely. At least he seemed to have shaken off his arrogance from when he was a kid.

"The gym's fine! A bit boring, now that we don't have that many trainers coming to challenge us."

They stopped in front of a big metal door and Gary pushed against it, holding it open for Misty to walk inside. Not only had he dropped his arrogant act; but he had manners! Misty was pleasantly surprised.

Gary closed the door. "Right, it's been a while since we handed out start pokemon to young trainers. You'll have to wait till next month to get some new trainers."

Misty looked around the room; it looked almost identical to her as the last room she was in, except a bit bigger, and with more machinery.

"This is the room where we conduct most of our research," Gary explained as he walked towards a big machine with a monitor attached to it.

"So, what exactly are you going to do with my pokemon? I'm still kind of confused about the details."

Gary picked up a notepad and started to scribble something on it. His green eyes then looked at her and he gave her a smile, which made her feel weak to the knees. She had never seen Gary smile! The only memories she had of him was his smirking and arrogant face. Gary tapped his pen against the big machine behind him.

"See this? This is a machine that monitors your pokemon's brain activity."

Misty tried to figure out what that even meant; she wasn't exactly smart in the research department.

"Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous, we'll attach a few sensors to your pokemon's body and this machine will record whatever its feeling."

Misty closed her eyes, trying to pretend to be deep in thought about what he said. Truth is; she had no idea what he was talking about. Research wasn't her thing.

"Here, I'll show you." Gary turned around and placed his notepad on the machine. He then stuck a few weird wires on the sides of his forehead, then turned on a switch. The machine made a loud metal sounding noise and the monitor finally flickered on.

"This machine records my brain waves, basically, it'll record what I'm feeling at the moment."

Misty looked at the monitor and saw a steady green line moving towards the right side of the screen, kind of like a life line at the Pokemon Center.

"Here, I'll show you how it works. Try and make me laugh, it'll show up on the monitor."

Misty blinked and rose her eyebrows at him. "How?"

"I don't know, tell me a joke."

Misty racked through her brain, but she wasn't coming up with any funny jokes at the moment, so she blurted out; "knock, knock."

Gary's face turned serious all of the sudden. "Really? Knock, knock? What are you, twelve years old?"

The monitor suddenly beeped, and the green line on it had moved up, and then back down.

"Oh, it moved! What does that mean?" asked Misty, finding it very curious, and forgetting he had insulted her joke.

"It means I was disappointed in your attempt to make me laugh."

Misty glared at him, and gave him a playful slap on the arms that were folded over his chest. She pretended to look offended. "How rude! I was trying real hard you know!" The old Misty would have blown up at him for saying such a thing to her face, but she had grown up a lot, and seeing how well he was behaving, Misty couldn't help but joke around with him.

That got Gary to chuckle, and the monitor beeped once more, this time the green line was higher than before. Misty looked at the screen with fascinated eyes.

"Cool," she said with a smile. "So you'll do this to my pokemon as well?"

Gary finally took off the wires and nodded. "Yup, this machine will record whatever your pokemon is feeling – but I need you to stick around for it. You see, we're recording the pokemon's emotions that it has for its master."

Misty got out her pokeball and rubbed it against her face. "Sure! But my pokemon already _looove_ me, so you won't find anything new."

"Then shall we get started on the first one?" he asked as he took his notepad in his hand again.

Misty released Politoad, who she hugged when he got out; just because he looked so cute. Gary started putting the wires on his head and gave Misty instructions on what to do. Misty in turn made her Politoad do certain things on Gary's command. Politoad had to dance, run in place, and Misty even had to try and make him laugh and comfort him. After an hour of work, Gary finally decided it was enough for now, and Misty returned Politoad.

"You know, this was probably extremely rude of me, but I should have offered you something to drink or something to eat sooner – Cerulean City is a long way from here," said Gary as he ran his hand through his spiky hair.

Misty simply smiled, but did realize she was rather thirsty and hungry. "Actually, I am rather thirsty and hungry! It took me two hours just to get here, I didn't realize it would take that long, otherwise I would have brought lunch with me."

Gary then lead her to the lunch room, which was just a room with a table surrounded by four chairs, and a refrigerator.

"We got some orange juice, some unknown leftover soda, and some milk, which do you prefer?" asked Gary once he opened the door of the fridge and looked inside.

"I don't even want to know what that unknown soda is – orange juice is fine," said Misty and she sat down on one of the chairs.

"Hey, doesn't Tracey work here as well?" she asked once she remembered her old friend staying behind to help Professor Oak.

Gary closed the fridge and took out a sandwich. "Yeah, he's gramp's assistant, so he's out right now as well. It's just us at the moment." He gave Misty a glass filled with orange juice, and a sandwich which she happily took. Gary sat down on the opposite end of the table.

"Thanks!" she said happily and started to chug down the orange juice in a very unfeminine way. "I don't see much of you on TV anymore," mused Misty. She started to remember little bits of Gary Oak now; he had appeared several times in documentaries alongside Professor Oak, but hadn't seen one of him in a very long time.

"I tend to keep to myself lately, being famous and followed around by people isn't my thing anymore."

"So no more cheerleaders?" asked Misty with a snort.

Gary chuckled and shook his head. "No more cheerleaders. Not since years ago."

Misty was pretty surprised she was having such a decent conversation with Gary – he hadn't even insulted her once. Well, he did insult her lame joke, but she deserved that one.

"How's Ash?" he finally asked.

Misty gulped down her orange juice before she answered. The dreaded question that everyone always asked her when they hadn't seen her in a while. It was as if people assumed she had constant contact with her old friend, when the truth couldn't be further. "Haven't heard much from him lately, he's probably still discovering all these new regions and pokemon."

"When's the last time you spoke to him?"

"Uhh – I think it was more than a year ago, actually. He wished me a happy birthday."

"So much for being best friends," said Gary mockingly. "Weren't you really close to Ash?"

Misty definitely didn't like the direction of the conversation it was heading it. Anytime she had to discuss how much of an ass Ash was for not ever calling her, it made her feel depressed. Especially since she wasted a lot of her youth on a stupid one-sided crush. A crush that lasted so long, she had never even gotten a boyfriend because of it. Then when she was over it – she _still _hadn't gotten a boyfriend!

"Friends drift apart," she answered almost bitterly.

Gary gave her a curt nod. "I can definitely agree to that."

"So, when is Professor Oak coming back? I haven't seen him in a while, and I kind of miss him!"

"He'll come back in the evening in two days."

"Aha, I see. How long do you think this research will take? I only brought a few extra pieces of clothing with me."

"Not long, not long. About four days perhaps, maybe even faster if you cooperate with me as much as you can."

Misty finally finished her sandwich and smiled at him. "Well, let's get started then!"

Gary conducted a few more experiments throughout the rest of the day. Both Politoad and Gyarados were examined, checked, and recorded over and over again. Misty had to admire the level of dedication Gary had for this job; he sure seemed to be into it. In fact, when he was typing away some data on the computer, he was practically in another world; Misty couldn't seem to get through to him at all. His focus was unwavering, and he never even paid attention to what she said while he typed away on the keyboard. Misty gave up on talking to him after a while and simply played with her pokemon.

"Huh, did you say something?" asked Gary all of the sudden as he turned around on his chair to face Misty. He really had a knack for looking like a real Professor. Then again, wasn't he already?

"I asked you twenty minutes ago what you were typing, but you simply ignored me," said Misty dully and she patted Politoad on the head.

Gary laughed sheepishly. "You did? Sorry, when I'm writing down my research I tend to shut off the world around me."

The redhead gave him a small smile. "It's okay." It was much better hearing Gary Oak apologize than to hear him insult her. The years had really done him good, she couldn't recognize his old self at all. She did detect a slight hint of arrogance, but it wasn't a in-your-face arrogance.

"Anyways, I'm done recording all the data, we're done for today."

Misty returned her pokemon. "Great! Because I'm starving for something to eat again!"

"We can eat at my place, since you're staying over there anyway," said Gary and he finally got out of his chair.

"Right, I forgot I was staying over at your place. I'm not sleeping on the couch, am I?"

Gary walked to the door and slid out of his lab coat. "I got a spare bed, don't worry." He then hung the coat up on a little hook on the wall and he opened the door for Misty. She walked by him with a smile.

"You know, you look pretty good in a lab coat," she said. It seemed a bit flirty, but damn – he really made that lab coat look good on him.

He gave her a sly smile. "Oh really?" he said with a tone of arrogance. There it is, that's the old Gary Oak. With that smirk on his lips, his green eyes staring her down, and his body looming over hers. That was the Gary Oak she knew, except he looked a lot more handsome now.

"Yup, it makes you look like a real Professor!" she teased him.

"I _am_ a real Professor," corrected Gary. "People just don't call me Professor Oak since it's confusing with both of us working together."

"I was only teasing! I know you're a real Professor. So, where's your house?" asked Misty once they stepped outside the complex.

Gary started walking down the pathway towards a small house not far from the lab. "Right down the street," said Gary as he pointed at the small house at the bottom of the hill. "I used to live here with my sister, but she's moved in with her boyfriend, and now lives in Slateport City."

Misty felt almost jealous; his sister managed to get a boyfriend and they were living together – while Misty had no experience in boyfriends whatsoever. Her eyes wandered over to Gary, who was now opening the door of the house. He probably had plenty of experience with women; she was kind of jealous. Especially since he was a known Pokemon Researcher, and had good looks to boot. Misty pouted at herself and entered the house as soon as he opened it and went in.

It wasn't a big house, big enough to room two people, which she figured was exactly what he and his sister did. There was a small kitchen on her left, and a living room on her right, with a staircase going up in the middle.

"Bathroom is upstairs, as well as your room," explained the brunette. "Kitchen to the left, and living room to the right."

"Yes, I can see that," she replied dully. Gary snorted in response. "So, what do you have for dinner? I'm so hungry I could die."

Gary slowly walked into the kitchen and opened his refrigerator. He took out two small plastic cups and held them out in front of Misty, who looked at them quizzically. Easy Mac & Cheese it said on the cups. Misty looked at Gary with dull eyes; was he playing jokes on her? Was this seriously going to be her dinner? Macaroni and cheese? What kind of food was that? Who in the world would eat that?

"You're kidding, right?" she finally said.

Gary turned away from her and started to open up the cups, pouring them into a small pan that was sitting on the kitchen counter. "Nope," he said.

"I'm not eating that." She really wasn't. That was the sort of food you'd eat when you had no life, and no concern for your own health. Well, Misty's life wasn't exactly all that worth bragging about – but she did care about her health!

"Suit yourself," he mumbled, and stayed quiet after that. He stirred around the pan with a spoon every once in a while, and the kitchen started to smell like cheese.

Misty didn't like being ignored, so she opened the fridge herself to see what was inside. The door opened and she was met with a very empty fridge. The only thing that was inside of it were two more plastic cups of Mac & Cheese, a milk bottle and a bottle of water. That was it.

"You don't do much shopping, do you?" she said sarcastically. Why was his fridge so empty? Did he literally live on these things?

"I'm too busy for things like that," Gary replied.

"You probably don't even know how to cook anything besides heating things up like Mac & cheese."

He slightly tilted his head towards her and flicked his spiky hair in her direction. "Exactly."

Misty scoffed loudly. "How can you be proud of not being able to cook? There's nothing to be proud of! Ugh, I'm starving!" She couldn't stop complaining; her stomach was empty and the only thing she ate was that sandwich from hours ago, and some cereal this morning before she was on her way to Pallet Town.

Gary took the pan off the heat and poured it into two bowls, each having a spoon inside of it. He took one bowl and sat down at the table, scooping up some macaroni and devouring it with his mouth. Misty stared at him for a while, it was making her really hungry – but it was Mac & Cheese! Not even real food! The redhead grumbled loudly then took the other bowl from the counter and sat at the table as well.

"Next time, I'm bringing over my own food," she said, then scooped up some macaroni.

Gary raised his eyebrows at this. "Next time?"

Misty gave him a glare. "Metaphorically."

The two of them remained silent throughout their meal, with Misty reluctantly eating her poisoned Mac & Cheese. She wondered if Gary really ate this every day, he was missing out on a lot of great food. Ever since she left Ash and went back to the gym, she had been preparing her own meals; not being able to rely on Brock anymore. Plus the fact that her sisters were more of a 'let's order take-out' people, Misty was left with only her own skills. It made her a pretty good cook in her opinion, she could make anything she wanted and it always tasted good. A lot better than Mac & Cheese.

When they were finally finished, Gary cleaned up the bowls and said he was heading for bed, and that he would wake her up at 8 AM in the morning. He showed her to her room, which was on the left side of the hallway, with Gary's room being on the opposite side. The bathroom was located right next to his room. She bid him a goodnight and stripped down to her underwear, quickly pulling on her long pajamas. Misty went to lie down on the tiny bed and tried real hard to fall asleep in this unfamiliar house.

Slowly, her stomach was beginning to feel a bit upset. Misty frowned at this, and hoped it was just because of the nerves of being in a strange home. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to sleep. Only, the longer she tried to fall asleep, the more nauseous she was feeling. Soon she felt sweat trickling down her face and her stomach was really upsetting her. Thoughts of Gary Oak poisoning her went through her mind; had he really done it? Was he only acting nice to her so that he could slip some bad stuff in her food? Misty felt a wave of nausea hit her, and she felt like she was going to puke any moment now. Misty finally got up; panicked that she was going to throw up soon. The bathroom! She had to go to the bathroom! She quickly ran out of the bedroom and opened the door, which caused her to almost slip up because the bathroom floor was slippery. She wasn't prepared to see someone else in the bathroom though.

What she saw was Gary's face inside the toilet bowl puking his guts out. Startled at the intrusion, he lifted up his defeated face; red and sweaty. The smell of his puke filled her nostrils and she couldn't keep it in any longer, Misty fell down to her knees and barfed on the ground. Her stomach made her throw up three times in a row before all of the macaroni had left her body. Misty sat down properly while breathing hard, and looked at the pool of vomit she made in the middle of his bathroom. It was a goop of orange with little bits of macaroni popping out, it was disgusting. Her lips twitched a bit at the disgusting blob of vomit. She looked at Gary, who had to shove his face down the toilet bowl once more to throw up. Misty tried her best not to be affected by this; since she had a knack of throwing up when she saw someone else do it.

Gary wiped his face off with some toilet paper, then threw the roll at Misty.

"Wipe off your face, you look nasty," he said, but his words lacked the usual sting, especially since he looked so sick himself.

Misty gratefully took the toilet paper and tore off some sheets, wiping off the excess vomit on her face, as well as the sweat on her forehead. She tore off a few other sheets and cleaned up her own vomit a little, but left it laying on the floor in a mess. She then leaned against the stone wall, gaining comfort from the coldness as it was bringing down the temperature of her body. She was starting to a feel a bit better now; after puking out that nasty Mac & Cheese, her body seemed to think she was alright again.

"You really did poison me," she said a bit out of breath and gave a half-assed glare towards Gary.

He simply shrugged his shoulders and pushed the hair out of his face. "Not on purpose." He then took a deep breath as he was starting to look like he was going to throw up again. "I think the Mac & Cheese might have been expired," he said weakly.

Misty couldn't help it; but she laughed out loud. Gary looked at her weirdly, wondering if the Mac & Cheese did something strange to her brain as well.

"Why are you laughing?"

Misty took a deep breath in between her laughter. "I don't know. But I feel like shit, you look like shit, there's shit on the floor, and the only thing making me feel better, is thinking this shit is funny."

"You sure know your shit," he retorted, a bit surprised at her language, which caused Misty to burst into laughter again. Only this time, Gary joined in on her.

There was something about laughing together after you puked your guts out that made Misty feel like she enjoyed Gary's company a bit more. Gary Oak, he poisoned her, but he wasn't that bad. Not that bad at all.


	2. Chapter 2

**It's Research**

**A/N:** whew, finally managed to finish up chapter 2. Enjoy!

**Chapter 2**

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><p>"Oh look, some fresh green onions! Those are good for almost anything!"<p>

After the Mac & Cheese incident (something they agreed to never speak of again), Misty had hauled Gary's ass out of his bed at 8 AM, to force him to go shopping for food at the grocery store. The young man needed to learn how to cook food, good food – healthy food. Food that wouldn't make you puke afterwards. Misty shuddered at the memory. She threw the bundle of green onions in to the cart and happily pushed along the aisle. Gary was slugging behind her as if he didn't really want to be there.

"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not that rich," he said loudly after Misty dumped in some cauliflower and broccoli in the cart.

Misty blinked at the brunette. He wasn't rich? "Don't you have loads of cash?"

He sighed in response. "I do, but it's a trust fund. My actual on hand cash is pretty low every month."

"Reaaaally," she drawled out, not believing him. Pokemon Researchers should earn enough to live a comfortable life, even if luxuries such as new electronic systems couldn't be afforded – food was definitely part of that comfortable lifestyle.

"What do you spend your money on then every month?" she asked and stared at a can of peaches.

Gary simply pulled a sheepish grin and then tried to avoid the subject. "Hey look, corn is on sale!" he pointed out.

Misty threw the can of peaches away and zoomed past him to grab a bunch of corn and threw it in the cart. Corn was healthy, she definitely needed a bunch of those. She wasn't going to entirely let Gary pay for all of this, she was going to pay for half, as this was her idea, and she was going to be eating from it as well. It wasn't her place to question what Gary Oak spent his money on, it's not like they were friends or something. But since she was going to stay with him for a while, it was definitely her place to say what she wanted to eat.

"How much does a Gym Leader earn?" asked Gary after a while of tagging along with her.

"Why do you want to know?" she asked him, but wasn't really paying attention.

He shrugged. "Just curious."

"Enough to buy food and to live on my own – if I wanted to, that is."

"You_ still_ live with your sisters?"

"Didn't you live with your sister as well, until very recently?" she asked back annoyed.

"At least I only had 1 sister. I can't imagine 3. It would drive me nuts."

Misty giggled at this; her sisters were indeed a handful, especially since they lacked a lot of common sense. But at least she didn't have to deal with them when she was on gym duties.

"My sisters aren't that bad, just a bit girly and stupid."

Gary snickered at this. "You admit your own sisters are stupid? I'm quite proud of you."

The redhead's cheeks turned red for a while, embarrassed that she would badmouth her sisters out loud. "Anyways!" she said loudly, then turned the cart into another aisle. "Let's finish this because I'm hungry for some breakfast."

Misty rushed her shopping a bit, but bought a lot of fresh vegetables, some meat, and a few snacks. They had to carry it back in four plastic bags. Fortunately, Pallet Town was small, so the grocery store was right around the corner. When they finally got back, Misty stocked up his fridge with all the new foods, but left out the eggs and green onions – she was making eggs for breakfast.

"Will you be cooking for me as well?" asked Gary with a sly grin. He leaned against the kitchen counter, folding his arms across his chest.

"I kind of have to. You're like a baby that will die if not fed enough."

He gave her a nasty glare, but she shrugged it off and started to prepare her eggs. Gary silently watched her every move, and it was making her feel a bit nervous being stared at.

As she chopped some green onion, she tilted her head towards him."Do you want to learn?"

"I'm fine with Mac & Cheese, thank you very much."

"Alright, be my guest if you want to puke your guts out every night." Misty grinned and returned to chopping her green onions, which she then dumped in the frying pan along with the egg. "Either way, I'm an excellent teacher, I even managed to get my sisters somewhat self sufficient."

"As far as I can recall, I remember Ash telling me your food was utterly inedible, and compared it to poison," mused Gary.

Misty's cheeks burned red and she quickly shook her head; that stupid Ash. "That was at least 7 years ago! You can't compare that to what I am today."

He shrugged and finally sauntered away from the kitchen counter. "True, we're not the same as we were 7 years ago."

She wondered just how much of what he had said pertained to her cooking, and how much of it was directed towards their lifestyles. Misty glanced back at him, and studied his figure for a bit. It was a lot different than she remembered, he had always been a scrawny kid, just like Ash, but now there was a man standing in front of her, with broad shoulders and long arms. Seven years was a long time not to see each other, so long that they were practically strangers. She became increasingly curious about what happened to him during those seven years, but decided to keep her questions to herself and finish making her eggs.

"So when is Professor Oak coming back again?" asked Misty to change the subject.

"Didn't I tell you already?" he asked a bit irritated.

Misty bit her lip, she vaguely remembered something like that. "Uhh, I don't remember," she said, playing innocent.

Gary sighed. "He'll be back tomorrow evening, though expect him to be late because Tracy has a horrible sense of direction and always manages to get anyone lost."

Misty giggled at that, then finally slipped off the eggs from the pan and onto a plate. She grabbed a fork and knife and happily hopped over to Gary, who was already waiting for her at the table. She placed the plate in front of him, and waited for him to take the first bite.

Gary slowly grabbed the fork, his eyes staring right back into Misty's. She never even noticed that he had green eyes, almost like an emerald. The man in front of her then coughed loudly. "Do you mind? I don't like being stared at when I eat."

Misty took a few steps back. "Right! Sorry!" she said and hastily went back to the stove where she could make her own portion of food.

She listened carefully to him chewing the food, and became increasingly nervous at what his reaction might be. No one else, other than her sisters, had eaten her food in a very long time, so she was kind of curious what other people thought. When the expected reaction didn't come, Misty turned around, curious why he hadn't said anything about it yet. She placed her hand on the side and cocked her head at him.

He gave her a frown in return, then popped the fork out of his mouth so he could talk. "What?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"It's only polite to tell someone their cooking is good," she said bossily.

Gary snorted out loud, and laughed to add to the insult. Misty glared at him, annoyed he would simply laugh at her face. He then twirled his fork in the air and looked at it with his green eyes. "It's alright."

Misty took that to mean 'it's good' so she smiled and returned to her own egg, which was cooking quite nicely in the frying pan. She used the spatula to flip the egg, getting hungry just by doing it.

"So, _Professor Oak_," started Misty, emphasizing his last name. Calling him that was kind of fun. "What will we be doing for today?"

Gary ignored the way she addressed him, but answered nonetheless. "A few tests here and there, but the biggest one involves… killing you."

The spatula dropped out of her hands, and she whirled around to look at Gary with horrified eyes.

The brunette simply laughed out loud. "Come on, don't take what I said so seriously!" he said in between laughs, which made Misty's head turn red of embarrassment. "Let me explain, I don't mean to actually kill you, but simply make it look you are. We have to make it look like you're in danger, to see how your Pokemon react to the situation."

She awkwardly picked up the spatula from the floor and brushed it off with her long sleeve, trying to ignore the small chuckles emerging from the other person in the room. "So you're just going to use me?" she spat out, a bit angry at him making a fool of her.

"Basically. You catch on quick." Misty gave him a dirty look, which he only smiled at innocently. "Don't worry, it won't be anything dangerous, it'll just _look_ dangerous."

Misty finally finished her egg and slipped it on a plate, then strutted over toward the small kitchen table to where Gary was gobbling up the last piece of his egg. To put herself in fake danger for the sake of test, it sounded weird, but she hoped Gary was right when he said it wasn't actually dangerous.

"What kind of results are you expecting with this 'fake danger'?" she asked as she sat down next to him.

"I'm expecting to see a strong bond of loyalty between Pokemon and their trainers. Hence why we needed someone who trained and bonded a lot with their Pokemon."

Misty unconsciously rubbed her Pokeballs that were on her belt, smiling softly at all the memories she had made with her Pokemon.

"I won't die for real, right?"

He gave her an all knowing smirk, one that was reminiscent of their childhood. "I can't guarantee that."

Misty had her doubts for the rest of the day about Gary's promises. Faking danger sounded kind of, well, dangerous. Something could go horribly wrong, and her pokemon would be traumatized! The brunette however, acted like nothing was wrong, and quickly went over some data on a long sheet of paper as they stood inside the lab.

"So, what exactly are you going to do to me?"

Gary peered over the sheet, and she could slightly see his hidden smirk behind it as well. "Why Misty? Anything in particular you want me to do," he then leaned closer to her face. "… to you?" he asked, emphasizing that last part. Seeing Misty's agitated face, Gary leaned back, satisfied at the result. "I'm gonna hang you."

Her hands shot to her neck and she grabbed it defensively. "What?"

"Idiot, I don't mean like a noose around your neck. Just tied up with some rope, dangling from the ceiling above some boiling lava."

Her eyes widened in fear. Lava? She was going to be held above freaking _lava_? Where'd he get lava anyway?

"Chill, that was a joke. _Haha_. You can laugh," he said dully. "Well, the lava part was a joke, but I'm still tying you up," he then pointed his pencil towards a big window in the wall behind her. There were a few chairs huddled around the glass, and behind the glass was a very large and empty room.

"What if I refuse?" she said and crossed her arms over her chest to make her point. She wasn't liking this one bit, she was expecting to run some tests on pokemon – but not actively engage in some experiment.

"Well then, it's a good thing you can't refuse me," he stated simply, then placed the pencil behind his ear, brushing away a few spikes of brown hair out of his face as he did so, and he folded up the long sheet of paper.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she barked at him. Maybe she was wrong, maybe Gary never changed from when they were young, he was still a pompous arrogant jerk. Just because he happened to be wearing a lab coat and earned the title of 'Pokemon Professor', that didn't mean he was actually a good person. Gary started walking towards the window, and Misty followed him while shooting daggers in his back with her eyes.

"I'll be sitting here, observing everything." He sat down at one of the chairs, and gestured her to do the same. She stubbornly sat down.

"You, will be inside there," he pointed to the room behind the glass. "There's a few cameras in there as well. If anything goes wrong, I can push this red button over here," he leaned back so she could see the red button that his back was hiding from view, "and you'll be pulled to safety instantly."

"What about my pokemon?" she blurted out.

"They'll be fine, they won't hurt themselves if they're smart enough."

"I still don't like this."

He gave a disappointing and long sigh. "Would you be happier if I explained everything step by step?"

"Yes, I would."

"Great. Then let me lay it down for you. I am going to tie you up, and you'll be wearing a safety harness underneath the rope. You will be lowered down from the ceiling, about a good 40 feet from the ground – but again, you're wearing a safety harness. One of your pokemon will be at the bottom, and then you'll have to act like you're in danger, by calling for help. I'll be up as well, ready to take any action if something goes wrong. Then we just watch and enjoy the show. If anything goes wrong, the red button will reel you back in to safety."

Gary looked at Misty's dumbfounded face. "Questions?"

"You won't let me fall, right?" she asked meekly.

He gave her a tired look. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Gary had already prepared everything in advance. He was spouting a bunch of information to her, as well as what she was supposed to do as he strapped her into the harness. Within minutes, whether she wanted to or not, Misty was tied in a bunch of rope, wearing a safety harness like Gary had promised, and was about to be lowered down in the observation room. When she was ready to go, Misty peered over the edge, the height scaring her a little bit, and shuffled away, knocking into Gary's chest as he was standing right behind her.

"Now, remember what I told you to do?"

She nodded her head nervously. "This is safe, right?" She pointed to the harness.

The hand that was placed on her shoulder startled her a bit, but she appreciated the gesture he was making. "I promise, nothing will happen to you," he said, his face hovering besides her ears which caused her nervousness to increase.

"So, you ready?"

"I think so," she said, not really ready at all. It was sort of out of the blue and she was strapped into this thing so quickly too.

"Alright then, you know what to do. If you want me to reel you back in, just yell 'strawberries'."

She looked at him stupidly and raised her eyebrows; strawberries? Gary frowned in return. "When you're pretending to be in danger, it's kind of hard to tell if you're acting, or if you're really asking me for help. So we'll use a word that wouldn't crop up in your vocabulary when screaming at the top of your lungs. Got it?"

She sort of got it, but not really. "Alright, off you go." Suddenly a button was pressed, and Misty felt herself being yanked to the side, something was moving her towards the pit of doom.

Fear of heights had never really bothered her, it wasn't one of her phobias … bugs on the other hand. Yet when she was dangling, a good 40 feet above ground, and only one piece of rope was holding her up, she started to become very fearful. Misty shakily looked to the side at the window, and saw Gary smile at her smugly and waved at her. Jerk, she was going to kick his ass for putting her in this situation once it was over.

The young professor pressed a button on the side of the wall, and an intercom was turned on by the sound of his mono-voice. "Okay, you're all set to go, release Politoad." His voice was awfully grating on her nerves when it sounded all computerized like that.

"My pokeball won't break if I throw it down there, right?" she asked uncertainly as she held Politoad's pokeball in her hands.

"Pokeballs are designed to not get broken that easily, it's safe to throw it down."

Misty eyed the pokeball in her hands, not wanting to break it and hurt Politoad who was inside. Then again, she didn't want to hurt herself for dangling above a huge pit!

"Come on, throw it," said Gary impatiently.

Misty gave him a mean look, but then finally threw the pokeball down at the bottom. "Politoad, come out!" she yelled. Now was the time to start pretending she was in danger.

She glanced over at the window, and Gary was giving her a thumbs up. When Politoad appeared at the bottom, Misty sighed and took a deep breath.

"Help Politoad! I'm in danger!" yelled out Misty, though her acting skills were not really worth mentioning.

Despite her lack of real urgency in her voice, Politoad nodded its frog-like head, and started to climb the walls, as if he were a spider. Misty tried to wiggle around when she saw Gary motioning for her to act a bit more crazy, and she kept calling for Politoad's name, while at the same time hoping this wouldn't traumatize him. It was rather uneventful how Politoad managed to reel her in with his tongue, break the line that was holding her up, and carry her down to safety despite not getting any commands from Misty whatsoever. Misty wiggled herself out of the loose ropes and gave her Politoad a hug.

"You're such a good pokemon, thank you Politoad!"

Suddenly Gary's voice boomed through the room, bouncing off of the stone walls making it seem even more menacing.

"That was … not what I was expecting." You could hear the distain in his voice as he said this, as if it were all Politoad's fault or something. "But, good work anyway. Stay there, I'm coming down."

Misty returned Politoad in her pokeball, very proud that he had saved her in a very gentle way – that was her pokemon alright! A few seconds later and Gary opened the door at the bottom to enter the room. He sulked openly, his hands in his pockets as if he had just lost an important battle or something.

"Let's try it out with Gyarados," he said, not even addressing Politoad's actions. He then took her pokeball out of her hands and handed over Gyarados instead.

"Why, what was wrong with Politoad?" she snapped defensively. "He saved me! Isn't that what you wanted?"

Gary brought a hand to his chin, deep in thought. "Hmm. Maybe if you panicked a bit more then we could see some true urgency."

"Oh come on, Politoad did good. I'm not hurt at all!"

"That's because this is a test situation, you wouldn't get hurt in the first place," he said with a sigh. "Nonetheless, it's data, so let's gather some more data. I have to tie you up again."

"Again?" she repeated with disdain.

"Yes, _again_. Come on."

"Fine."

The next few minutes Misty let herself be tied up again in the same way as before, which also included a new safety harness of course, since Politoad broke the previous one to rescue her. Gary gave her a weird look before sending her off to the pit of doom again. He pushed his finger on the intercom to talk.

"Okay, act a bit more crazy this time. Use that voice of yours, I know you can be pretty damn loud."

Misty whipped her head at him angrily. "What's that supposed to mean!" she yelled out at him

He simply shrugged at her knowingly, while a smirk graced over his lips. "That's the spirit. You ready?"

The redhead pouted, but then took out her pokeball. "Yeah," she said. She then threw the ball at the bottom.

"Gyarados, please come out and help me!" she yelled, trying her best to sound panicked. She look over at Gary for approval, but he had a sullen look on his face and sighed heavily – even though she couldn't hear it, it was pretty obvious.

Gyarados popped out of his pokeball and looked around in a confused state. Misty gave Gary a glare, she'll show him, she could act like a damsel in distress! She started to wiggle a bit, so that her body swung from left to right.

"Help me Gyarados!" she yelled in a very high pitched voice. "They're going to get me!" She had no idea who 'they' were, so long as Gyarados believed that 'they' were after her.

Her pokemon looked up at her with his fierce look, then roared out loud, sending vibrations down to her bones. For a split second, she had second doubts about this; Gyarados was her strongest pokemon, he could do more harm than good. But no, she trusted him, he would save her, right?

"Help!" she screeched again, wiggling for good measure.

The pokemon then went ballistic and started to spew out water from his mouth, filling up the pit so fast that his entire body was almost submerged. Misty's eyes grew wide when she saw he had no intentions of stopping his water gun attack, she wouldn't drown like this, right? She hastily looked over at Gary, who had his eyes strained on Gyarados, and looked strangely excited. She had a feeling that she couldn't rely on Gary if something really went wrong, there went her metaphorical safety net.

Misty believed (about ninety percent) this would have ended well if Gyarados would just keep filling up the room with water until he reached her, but she never counted on him to reach the glass window where Gary was, and the pokemon gave the loudest roar ever once their eyes met. The brunette's eyes widened when he realized that Gyarados was going to charge at him. It seemed that Gyarados believed 'they' really meant 'Gary' and totally discarded her safety and went for him instead, he launched a full out body slam on the window, but it barely even had a scratch.

"No, Gyarados! Save _me!_ Don't attack him!" she called out at him.

Except it was useless, her pokemon was disobeying her direct orders and kept smashing itself against the window. She saw Gary hurriedly scrambling over to the intercom to talk to her.

"Misty, I'm reeling you in, this is becoming too dangerous," he said in a slightly panicked voice. He then pressed the emergency button, and Misty felt herself moving closer to the gap in the wall, to safety.

Gyarados noticed the sudden movement of Misty, and finally stopped to roar out loud, and launched a hyper beam at her. Misty screamed bloody murder when the beam went her way, except it wasn't aimed at her, it was aimed at the rope that was keeping her up there. Misty could see her plain regular life flashing before her eyes as she saw the rope getting torched and snapped in half, and she slowly fell down towards the water.

Her body hit the water hard, the impact knocking out most of her breath, and her body slowly started to sink. Her eyes were open and she tried to see if she could kick her way up to the surface to be able to breathe again, but Misty wasn't a Seal, she was human, and she couldn't swim up when her arms were held against her body. She saw Gyarados's tail swipe by her face, he'd either take her up to the surface, or totally ignore her. When there was no indication that Gyarados was going to save her, Misty wondered just how well she had tamed her pokemon. Misty sunk deeper and deeper, until her body hit rock bottom, and she was literally out of air.

So this was it, this was how she was going to die, drowning by her own pokemon's actions, all because that stupid wannabe professor thought it would be a great idea to put her in a fake dangerous situation. Except it turned much more dangerous than expected, and here she was, all the way at the bottom with no way out, and she finally let out her last breath. She couldn't even rely on Politoad, since she left the pokeball with Gary and only kept Gyarados with her. So much for her safety net. _Goodbye cruel world, lived for 19 years, had an unrequited crush for 4 years, never managed to get a real boyfriend, and now I'm going to drown in my own pokemon's water._

She instinctively tried to breathe in air, but all she sucked in was water, and it filled up her lungs. A few seconds later, and her vision blacked out.

The first thing she did when she regained consciousness again was cough up a lot of water, while simultaneously bumping her head against someone else's. Misty squeezed her eyes shut and coughed some more, trying to catch her breath. When her coughs finally started to go down, Misty took a few deep breaths, happy to breathe in oxygen again. When she had calmed herself down enough to look around, she noticed that Gary's body was hovering over hers, which was laying on the ground, with Politoad was standing right next to him. Sincere green eyes were filled with fear and worry, and even guilt. His brown bangs were wet, but so was the rest of his body. She was outside of the pit, on the floor, and all she could think about was that she was lucky to be alive again, to see those green eyes once more.

"Can you breathe?" asked Gary as he sat down next to her, those eyes still filled with worry.

Misty rubbed her throat and coughed a few times to get rid of an itch, then took in a very large breath. Sweet, sweet oxygen, she hadn't drowned to death after all. She then gave him a small grin. "First you poison me, then you try to drown me."

He gave her a sigh. "Good, you can." Gary's eyes finally pulled away from her and he looked at the floor. "I understand if you want to go home now. I'm really sorry about all this, it shouldn't have happened."

"I thought I was going to die," she said in a single breath, staring aimlessly at the high ceiling. "Water has always been my safe haven you know, I never thought I was actually going to drown in it." Politoad then gave her a big hug and licked her face. "Thanks Politoad, I'm guessing it's because of you I'm actually alive. I knew I could count on you, buddy."

Gary gave Politoad a warm smile. "He sure did, very heroic, not to be underestimated. Now, your Gyarados on the other hand."

"He's just a big brute, he doesn't know what he did was dangerous," she said defensively. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, I recalled him."

There was a silent moment between them, with Politoad continuously licking her face, making sure she was alright.

"Are you okay?" asked Gary after a while, avoiding her face.

Misty finally sat up straight to look at him properly. "Not sure. I mean, it was such a traumatic experience, you know? Yesterday I was puking my guts out, today I'm coughing up water, and it seems that each one of those experiences were the direct cause of your actions."

"Your sarcasm is greatly appreciated in the face of death."

She finally laughed out loud, which quickly turned into a fit of coughs. Gary rushed to her side and rubbed her back to calm her down. She looked up at him, still coughing a bit.

"Gary Oak, I don't know whether to hate you, or like you!" she exclaimed with another laugh.

"I think you should appreciate the fact I know how to give CPR."

"You wouldn't have a reason to use it if it weren't for your crazy idea in the first place."

"Which, by the way, gave me excellent results, better than I was hoping for."

"Hey! I'm not your test puppet!"

The look he gave her sent chills down her spine, he reluctantly bit his lips and turned away from her, opting to lean his back against hers. "No, no you're not. You can leave if you want."

Misty gave him a snort and a shrug of her shoulders. All this time Misty had been living a rather uneventful life, with the occasional gym battle here and there, and no friends coming to check her up, Misty realized that even though her life had been on the line, she liked the change in her life. Merely two days after coming over she had experienced food poisoning, and almost drowned. Yet, she felt more alive than ever. What good was life if all she ever did was lounge around and watch everybody around her grow up while she remained stagnant, not achieving anything worthwhile. This was the most action she had gotten in the past five years.

"And miss all the action? No thanks, I'm good here. But you owe me big, mister Oak. Very big."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around? You know, with me saving your life and all."

"Excluding the fact that you were the one who put me into a situation like this in the first place – it was Politoad who saved me, not you."

"How would you know," he mumbled under his breath. "You were out cold."

Misty pushed her wet head against the back of his. "Hey Gary?"

"What?"

"I want to stay here, but you gotta promise me you won't try to kill me again."

"I'll try not to."

"Good," she said, then finally passed out after such an eventful day.

The next time Misty woke up again, she noticed she was in that crappy old bed that she had slept in just a day ago. She raised her body from the bed and sat straight, rubbing her eyes while simultaneously trying to remember what happened after she passed out. She couldn't remember a thing after Politoad had saved her. Misty then noticed she was wearing her pajamas. Suddenly feeling all embarrassed, she quickly checked her underwear, and they were still the same ones she wore yesterday, so she gave a relieved sigh.

After a few more seconds of waking up, Misty finally swung herself out of the bed and went out the hallway, knocking on Gary's room.

"Gary, you in there?" she called out. There was no response however. She sauntered downstairs, and then noticed two pokeballs sitting on the table, along with a small note. She took the note in her hand and read it.

"_At the lab_, that's all it says? Not even a 'sorry I drowned you'?" she asked with a snort, then put the note down and retrieved her pokeballs.

She quickly got dressed and headed to the lab. She didn't expect to run into anyone besides Gary at the lab though, so when she almost knocked into someone opening the doors, it gave her a freight.

"Misty! Good to see you!" said the tall boy with black hair.

Misty cracked a smile. "Tracey!" she said happily. He had gotten mighty taller during those years they were separated.

"Are you okay? I hear what happened yesterday," he said in a more serious voice, then took her hand and guided her inside of the lab.

"Yeah, I'm fine for now. When did you get back?"

"This morning actually, we managed to get back earlier than expected. Gary's been briefing us about the research you have helped us with. But anyways! So how's it going? Aside from the near death experience."

Misty gave a small giggle at Tracey's enthusiasm. She hadn't seen him in years either, so it was good to see him again after such a long time. "Everything's normal, just everyday life."

"Good to hear – so how's Ash doing?"

Ash, that dreaded topic that always came up whenever someone talked to her. Misty bit her lip, trying hard not to look agitated at Tracey for asking such a question – it's not like he meant any harm by asking it. But it was just rubbing salt in her wounds when she knew just as much as they did when it came about Ash; nothing.

"Dunno, haven't heard from him in a very long time," she said with a shrug.

"Is that so? I thought you were best buds."

Misty shot him a hidden glare; did he have to state it so plainly? Luckily, before she could even answer that, she was already inside of the research room, and saw two Oaks hard at work, standing near a big machine while holding a bunch of papers.

"Professor Oak!" Misty squealed out and ran over to him.

Both heads turned, and Professor Oak gave her a warm smile. It had definitely been too long she had seen him without a videophone screen in the way. He looked a lot older in person though; probably nearing his sixties.

"My, it's Misty! How are you? Is everything alright with you?"

Misty hand waved her near death experience since she was happy to see him. "Oh that, it's fine, really. Did you have a nice trip?" she asked politely.

"Splendid!"

Misty suddenly noticed that Gary was also right next to Professor Oak, but he hadn't said a word. In fact, it seemed he was avoiding her as well.

"So Gary's been telling me the experiments you have participated in, and it seems to be going rather well."

She wouldn't call drowning 'well', but chose to ignore that part. "Yeah, it's been rather fun too."

"Hey Gary, why don't we review the footage you recorded yesterday?" piped in Tracey.

"Sure, I was going to anyways in a few minutes. Want to watch too, Misty?" he asked, finally addressing her.

"Is ehm," she started a bit awkward. "Is _that_ part on it too?"

"Everything."

Misty gulped, not quite wanting to see herself drown so helplessly. Professor Oak then put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Misty, you're safe and sound, why don't you come join us?"

That old grandfather voice melted her like butter; she could never deny _the_ Professor Oak, except for the younger Professor Oak. She nodded mindlessly, and followed the trio as they walked into another room with a big TV screen. Great, now her life's worst failure will be magnified in front of her eyes, suddenly she was starting to have second doubts again.

Gary popped in a CD on the side of the TV, and an image appeared on it immediately. The screen was split into four sections, each having recorded a different angle. One at the very top, aiming towards the bottom, one at the bottom, aiming at the top, and two on the sides that each recorded the top and bottom section of the pit.

"Alright, so this was the first part, using Misty's Politoad," explained Gary as he held a remote in his hands, making the video play.

Misty took a seat like everyone else, sitting next to Tracey, but her eyes were glued on the screen. Though part of her really wanted to look away, since she didn't really want to see this. The video started to play and she could see herself being reeled out into the open, and she summoned Politoad. Politoad obeyed her commands, and quickly managed to bring her down to safety.

"Marvelous!" piped in Professor Oak in a happy voice. "Your Politoad is a fine pokemon, you raised him well, Misty."

She had to blush a bit at the compliment, then smiled and nodded in return.

"Next up was Gyarados, and as I said before, we ran into trouble with that one," said Gary.

Misty didn't really want to look at the screen as she heard herself yell out loud that 'they' were after her, which caused Gyarados to go on a rampage and fill the camber with water. Hesitantly she averted her eyes away from the screen, though when she heard a loud splash, she immediately returned to watching it again. She saw how she went under, the camera perfectly capturing everything as she sunk to the bottom, wiggling desperately to get back up again.

On one of the other camera angles, she saw Gary opening a door from the side, then called out Politoad while he quickly dove straight into the water, managing to escape the wrath of Gyarados as Politoad kept it distracted. Misty was kind of flabbergasted at seeing Gary dive all the way down and grabbing her lifeless form, then quickly retrieved her pokeball as well and called Gyarados back. He then swam to the side and opened a secret hatch, which made the both of them burst out of the chamber when it was opened, the water pushing them out. She couldn't really see what happened next as the camera barely captured part of the secret hatch, but she saw Gary's form hovering above hers, and he was about to do something when the real Gary stood up from his chair and paused the video.

"Alright, that's enough, end of footage," he said with a scratchy voice.

Misty gulped loudly when she realized what exactly had happened after she blacked out. She thought Politoad had retrieved her from the water, he was after all, a very good swimmer – but never imagined that Gary would use Politoad to distract her Gyarados as he went down himself to retrieve her body. Suddenly she felt extremely embarrassed at giving the credit to Politoad when she woke up again, completely dismissing Gary's effort at recuing her.

"Man Misty, that was intense!" said Tracey out loud.

"As I thought, Politoad is a very fine pokemon. Your Gyarados needs training though," mentioned Professor Oak.

"Sorry that Gary had to put you through that, but at least you're safe now," said Tracey as he gave her a pat on the back before exiting the room.

Misty sat there awkwardly in the room with the two Oaks, not quite sure what to do with herself anymore.

"Well Misty, I can't thank you enough for participating in this research, I'll be sure to let your sisters know what a great help you have been." Then Professor Oak left the room as well, leaving her alone with Gary, who was staring intently at the wall.

Misty squirmed on her seat, then decided to get up and walk over to Gary.

"I … uhm," she said, trying to find the words to properly thank him.

"What?" he said, finally addressing her, albeit with a little bit of rudeness.

She brushed her orange hair out of her face and bashfully looked at her shoes. "Sorry for giving the credit to Politoad. Thanks for, you know, saving me and all."

Gary returned to wall-staring, as if something really interesting was written on it. "Yeah," he said curtly.

Misty bit her lip, then leaned in forward a bit more to see his face that he was trying to hide, and noticed that his cheeks were ever so slightly tinted pink.

"Oooh, you're embarrassed!" she said almost with a squeal.

Gary whipped his face around and gave her an angry look. "I'm not!" he said, despite his face getting redder.

Misty giggled in awe, finding it extremely cute that Gary – _the_ Gary Oak, the one that tormented her years ago – was embarrassed at having her thank him for saving her life. "You _so_ are!" she said with another giggle, then tried to push his hands away that were covering his face.

"I'm not, now stop – _stop that!_" He tried to evade her hands, all the while his face was steaming red. It was so cute and endearing, Misty couldn't help but feel embarrassed as well – but only since he started it.

Misty finally managed to grab his hand and pulled it away from his red cheeks, and brought it to her chest. "Thanks, Gary, I mean it," she said with a sweet smile.

That action only served to embarrass Gary even more, and he quickly jerked his hand back and stormed out of the room, mumbling something about impossible redheads.

Misty's laughter started to slow down, but she was still grinning from ear to ear. Near death experience? She was _so_ over that, she had this cute little Professor to torment to make up for it.


	3. Chapter 3

**It's Research**

**A/N: **Most people like to characterize Misty as very hot headed, with Gary as the cold and arrogant jerk, and make them fight with each other constantly. Fun to read about, but I like to take a different direction with them. There's no need to fight constantly for love to bloom, a simple friendship will do.

**Chapter 3**

* * *

><p>"Your feet are annoying."<p>

"Really? I think it's quite comfortable like this."

"There's nothing comfortable about you jabbing your toes into my side."

"But I can't help it, your defenseless side is just _begging_ me to poke it."

Gary finally swatted away her feet with his hands, causing her feet to finally fall off of his chair, which she had been leaning on previously, while nudging him in the side every once in a while. Misty was sitting on the corner of the desk, her back against an archive cabinet, and she was using Gary's chair that was sitting right in front of her, as a pillar of support for her feet. She had kicked off her sneakers, opting to go barefoot when she got bored and it was starting to get a bit hot in the lab.

The Professor returned to typing on his computer, and when he did this, he became completely oblivious to the world around him – which made it so attractive to tease the hell out of him because he was totally unaware of her presence.

"Fine, I'll stop doing it," she said and returned to her crossword puzzle that she had been working on previously. "For now anyway," she said with a small grin, knowing Gary wasn't even listening to her at all. Using this opportunity while he was out of it again, Misty propped her feet back up on his chair.

Misty's job was done for the day, having been involved with a small series of tests with Politoad, and to a lesser extent, Gyarados, so she didn't have much to do besides bug the hell out of Gary as he typed away the data he had collected today on the computer. Tracey wasn't even in Pallet Town anymore so she could chat with him instead, apparently he had to go on an errand that Professor Oak made him do.

So as she watched Gary do his thing, Misty started to work on her pokemon crossword puzzle – she loved those things to bits, and always kept one in her backpack in case situations like these would ever arose. Despite the two nasty experiences from the past several days, Misty was feeling quite upbeat. It might had something to do with her toes taking another jab at his side, and Gary flinching as she did, and gave her an annoyed look. It was almost like Gary was going to start hissing at her for not stopping this instant. He brushed it off and went back to work.

Misty had to hide a big, satisfied grin behind her puzzle. He just made it too easy for her to tease him!

"Hey Gary, you hungry for some lunch?" she asked him once she started to notice the hunger pains in her stomach.

"Am I what now?" he asked absentmindedly, still typing on his computer.

"I'm asking if you're gay and are in love with Ash Ketchum," she repeated in a monotone voice.

"Yeah, sure," he said with absolutely no awareness of what she had asked him.

There had to be a limit to how much he actually _didn't _hear, right? Misty giggled at his answer, then hopped off the desk, putting her feet back into her sneakers, and sauntering away from the lab. He probably hadn't even noticed she left, which was no big deal, she was going to make some lunch for the both of them. After all, she managed to get Gary to buy some decent food.

She met up with the older Professor Oak in the lunchroom.

"Ah Misty, how's the research with Gary going so far?" he asked in a friendly voice while sipping on some coffee.

Misty turned her back on him as she started to make some sandwiches for both her and Gary, using some of the food they bought a while ago.

"Well, it seems that I'm done for today, so I don't really have much left to do. Other than that, it seems it's going well – according to Gary anyway."

Professor Oak chuckled and set his coffee down. "He sure works hard, but he means well, so don't hold it against him that he got you in trouble before."

How could she ever deny the old grandfather? Misty simply smiled and nodded, resuming her sandwich.

"Say, how's Ash doing?"

If she was holding a knife in her hand, it would have fallen out of her hands and stabbed her right through her foot – that is, _if _she was holding one. The once more dreadful friendly conversation about Ash. She knew Professor Oak didn't mean to annoy her on purpose, he was just asking how his old friend was doing, but why did everyone always asked _her_? When people thought of 'Misty', could they only think of her as 'Misty with Ash'? Was she even her own person anymore without the pokemon trainer? Misty sighed, and prepared herself for giving him an answer.

"Why don't you ask him yourself, gramps? He's coming over to your birthday party, remember."

Her blue eyes quickly scanned the room to see Gary sitting down next to Professor Oak, and he gave her a small nod.

"Oh that's right! I had almost forgotten!" said Professor Oak with a loud laugh. "But that won't be in months."

"Birthday party huh, how many years has _the_ Professor Oak lived on this planet?" asked Misty with a sly smile, entirely happy that she didn't have to deal with talking about Ash.

"Sixty wonderful years!" he exclaimed without another laugh. "And still going strong! That is, until Gary takes everything over."

"Yeah, yeah," said Gary in a dull voice, as his eyes were focused on the sandwich Misty was making.

"Hey, am I invited as well?" she asked with a smile.

"Why, of course you are – all of the Waterflowers are invited to the party. We just haven't send any invitations yet, since it'll be a while until it's my birthday."

"Who else is invited?" she asked curiously.

"Plenty of people! Researchers, gym leaders, pokemon trainers, family – you name it. It's going to be a big trip down on memory lane."

Right, Ash was supposedly invited as well, this meant she could see him again. Misty was sort of looking forward to this, and on the other hand, wanted to avoid him like the plague because he dropped her in favour of other girls to travel with.

"Anyways, I've got to go back to work. Gary, keep a look out for Tracey, I sent him on his way to pick something up that you'll probably want to check out." Professor Oak then stood up from the table, with his coffee mug in his hand, and left the room.

Misty turned around again to the kitchen counter, trying to ignore the staring that Gary was doing, it was almost burning a hole in her back.

"I didn't realize you left," he said all of the sudden.

"You don't realize a lot of things when you're on the computer," she said with a snicker.

"Touché." He then sneaked up on her, his face looming over her shoulder so that he could see what she was doing. "Making lunch?"

"No, this is just fodder for my pokemon."

"That's some fancy fodder."

"Well, they only get the best!"

Gary then swooped down with his hand and snatched away the perfect sandwich she had just created, and tore of a chunk with his teeth. Misty whirled around, angered that he stole her sandwich without her permission – and at seeing him chew on it delightfully.

"Thanks," he said with a mouthful.

The girl pouted a bit, then gave him a lopsided smile; she was making one for him after all. Misty then finished up her own sandwich and they both hung around in the lunchroom eating their food while talking about everything and nothing. Mostly they were just playfully teasing each other though, and Misty found this quite entertaining. More entertaining than being stuck at the Gym with nothing to do at least.

They were interrupted with Tracey almost falling through the door carrying a heavy looking cardboard box. "Gary!" he called out excitedly. "Guess what!"

Gary examined the box with his emerald eyes, then simply gave a confused expression at Tracey's smiling face.

"Well, it's only been something you've been waiting on for 4 months …"

"Oh awesome, they finally came in?" asked Gary excitedly and made Tracey put down the box on the table.

Misty tried to take a peak of what was inside when Gary opened it, but immediately took it off the table with a very large smile.

"What's that?" she asked before Gary could hop out of the room with it.

"Estrogen hormones for our pokemon," recited Tracey, as if he was the Pokemon Professor in the room.

"I've been waiting for this to arrive for months, now I can finally get on with my research." Gary hugged the box to his body, as if it was a precious gift.

Misty didn't really get it, and it showed on her face. "What's it for?"

Gary looked over at Tracey with his eyebrows raised, and Tracey did the same. They both shrugged at the same time. "To be blunt, it's an aphrodisiac to make pokemon more receptive to breeding."

The redhead finally got what they were talking about and winced at the thought. "Eww, that's so gross!"

Gary shrugged. "It's research."

"That makes it even grosser!"

"Well, _someone's_ gotta do the research, Misty," he said with a sigh. Then he finally left the room with the box full of estrogen hormones, with Tracey in tow.

Misty rolled her eyes, not really wanting to think about her pokemon being horny, but decided to follow them anyway. Gary was off in his own world, walking into a big cooler that was part of the lab, and Misty decided to stay put with Tracey, finding it rather weird how Gary was so happy all of the sudden.

"Tracey, does Gary, like, have a girlfriend or anything?" she asked, eyeing the professor inside the cooler suspiciously.

"Not that I know of, why do you ask?"

"Do you think … he's into pokemon?"

Tracey burst out into laughter and slapped Misty hard on the back. "That's hilarious Misty! I have no idea what made you think that, but don't let Gary hear yah!" He then laughed some more and left her standing near the cooler.

Misty simply frowned; it was an honest question. With the way he was totally obsessed about anything that involved researching pokemon, and how happy he was at getting something that made pokemon horny. It was kind of disgusting to think about.

"Okay you've been eyeing me with those nasty little eyes ever since I got the hormones, what's up?" asked Gary when he finally left the cooler and locked the door behind him.

"Nothing," drawled out Misty. "Say, weren't you really popular with the ladies?"

Gary frowned at the random question. "I used to get lots of attention from them … what's with the question though?"

"Well, I thought you were like a womanizer or something, I didn't expect you to – " Misty got cut off by Gary who gave her a disapproving look.

"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a womanizer," said Gary in a rather dull voice.

Misty simply raised her eyebrows at him in response, forgetting her original intent of asking if he was into pokemon. No way; he was lying, right? "But those cheerleaders you had … come on, you can't tell me you don't have _any_ experience regarding girls."

"I might have an overabundance of self confidence in my talents – but girls isn't one of them." He said it so plainly, as if it wasn't a big deal. She had always imagined Gary as being some sort of beast when it came to girls. Maybe she was wrong about the pokemon part as well – in fact, the more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded.

"No way! Are you serious?"

The brunette gave a small nod.

"Hah, and here I was thinking you had had tons of experience in sex."

"And I think your head is full of water."

"Har-har, very funny Gary." She then followed Gary as he walked back towards the lab, slightly admiring the way his lab coat billowed behind him. "So, care to tell me what happened that made you like this?"

Gary's green eyes glared at her. "What makes you think something happened to turn me 'like this'?"

"Come on, don't be shy, tell me – who was the first girl you liked?" asked Misty with a grin. She was feeling rather happy, knowing Gary wasn't any more knowledgeable about sex than she was. In fact, it was rather reassuring that a guy her age was still a virgin (this was a huge assumption on her part) – just like her.

"None of your damn business," he said, then started to walk even faster.

The redhead pouted, but grinned as she poked his back, causing him to stop. "So you're not into pokemon then, right?"

"Are you mentally retarded? That's disgusting, Misty. Just because I collect data on pokemon breeding, doesn't mean that's my thing. That's just _wrong_."

Misty blushed a bit and giggled at her own stupid thoughts. Of course he wasn't into pokemon that way. She'd heard of those kind of people, but didn't really expect Gary to be like that.

"What? I was only asking! What's a girl to think when you're so happy at making pokemon horny?"

"The words that can come out of your mouth …" said Gary with a sigh. "Let me get back to work. You go … do something, something which doesn't involve bothering me."

"Fine, fine," she said with a defeated smile.

Eventually they ended up back in the same position before lunch; Misty sitting on the edge of the L-shaped desk, with her feet leaning on Gary's seat as he kept on inputting more data on the computer. The redhead left her crossword puzzle alone, and opted to look around the room and think back to how many new memories she had made already. The first day she had to do some weird emotional tests, then got poisoned at night. The second day had her doing 'fake' dangerous stuff, which turned into a life-threatening situation and today was a rather peaceful day. It had been most excitement she had seen in years, despite complaining about it constantly.

Misty studied the young Pokemon Professor in front of her – poking him in the side with her toe again that earned her a small hiss from him. Gary Oak, he was not that annoying guy anymore she had crossed paths with so many years ago. He had grown up, and so had she. Despite their personalities being the same, their mannerisms had changed; she stopped being so hotheaded all the time, and he stopped insulting people. Though they both seemed to enjoy doing this on purpose just to tease each other. This type of companionship was just like the good old days with Ash and Brock, friends that she could joke around with, talk about anything, and simply feel at ease. Friends who never bothered to keep in touch though.

She kept her quiet thoughts to herself as she spent hours in the lab together with Gary and Tracey, despite not talking much since they were both busy.

"Misty," called out Gary.

Misty snapped out of her thoughts and rose her eyebrows at him. "What?"

"I think I'm done with you."

Ouch, that sounded rather harsh. "You mean I'm not needed anymore?"

"Yeah, I just finished typing up the rest, and I realized I've got all the data I need, so you're free to go home now. Don't want to keep sucking up all your time when there's nothing else for you to do anymore."

"Oh, I see." Why was she so disappointed hearing this? She figured she'd still have another day to go before going home. "Then, I'll go pack up my things. Do you have the key to your house?"

"There's a spare one underneath a rock to the left of the door, use that one."

Misty wanted to make fun of him for having such a cliched spot for a spare key, but was feeling rather under the weather knowing she had to leave already, so she said nothing instead, and walked out of the lab.

The sun was setting already, Misty stared at the sky and figured she'd be back around 10 PM if she hurried up a bit. As Gary had said, there was indeed a spare key underneath the _only _rock in the entire premise and she used it to enter his house. Misty quickly packed up her stuff, which was very little, and made another sandwich for on the way to Cerulean City. When she saw that everything was done, Misty gave one long look at the house she had stayed in for four days, feeling a bit sad she had to leave it already, then left to go back to the lab, making sure to put the key back underneath the rock.

"You're leaving already?" asked Tracey whom she met up with at the entrance.

"Yup, seems my work here is done."

"It feels like you just got here," said Tracey absentmindedly.

The redhead gave him an apologetic smile. "We only met again yesterday, did you forget?"

"Oh that's right! How silly of me. Anyways, thanks for the work, and have a safe trip to Cerulean City!" He gave her a small wave with his hand and then rushed out of the lab, going on another errand most likely.

Misty sighed and walked inside, ready to say her goodbyes to both Gary and Professor Oak. She managed to find her way back to the lab, almost getting lost since it was a rather large building, and saw Professor Oak chatting with Gary as he was sitting on his chair at the computer.

"Hey Misty, I hear you're done with the research," said Professor Oak as he saw her approach.

"Apparently," she replied with a small smile. "Well, it's been nice seeing you guys again, I hope you'll do good on your research things and stuff."

"We're grateful you managed to help us so much, don't be a stranger and drop by everyone once in a while, okay?" asked the old man. "Well, have a safe trip, Misty." He then nudged Gary in his side. "Gary, escort the lady outside."

"Alright, old man." Gary got off his seat and started to walk away from the lab. Misty swung her backpack over her shoulder and hurried after him.

It was weird knowing she was about to leave when she had stayed there for a few days, and felt rather sad at having to leave so soon just when she was having fun. Misty continued to pout as Gary lead their way out of the lab. He opened the lab doors and stood aside to let her out.

Misty looked at him up and down, smiling sadly as she did. She was sort of going to miss him. With that long lab coat he wore every single day, and that messy hairstyle of his, with his witty remarks. Yeah, it was fun while it lasted.

"So uhm, be careful. It's getting pretty dark already, wouldn't want you getting into trouble," he said in a serious tone.

"I think I can handle myself," said Misty. "I'm not a Gym Leader for no reason."

Gary scratched the back of his head, and he looked unsure of what to do – just as much as she was. "Thanks for helping us out."

"You're welcome."

"And sorry for, you know, _that_."

"Are you referring to the poisoned Mac & Cheese, or the drowning part?"

He gave her a fierce glare with his piercing green eyes and Misty bit back a chuckle. "Both."

"No big deal," she said, making it seem like it was never a problem in the first place. They both stared at each other in silence, and the longer Misty held her gaze with him, the more she felt like she didn't really want to leave. Leave and go back to her boring life? Who would want that?

"See you." His voice was thick and heavy in the silent night.

Misty shuffled on her spot and gave him a small nod with her head. "Yeah, goodbye." She then finally turned around and started to walk away from the lab. She heard the lab door close behind her, and Misty's mind went blank.

It was kind of weird how she couldn't remember most of her journey, almost like she had paid absolutely zero attention to where she was going. But she was back again, after hours of walking that she didn't remember much, Misty was back in Cerulean City, the eternal city of glowing lights. Her feet were sore, she was still really out of shape – her legs were as well. She walked through the familiar streets, not really paying attention to where she was going. Being back seemed so strange after spending a few days over at Gary's place. She felt a bit empty, bored really. Back to her boring old life as a Gym Leader, where nothing interesting ever happened other than the occasional battle. The redhead sighed depressingly and finally returned back to the gym. She walked along the pool and searched for her sisters.

"Daisy? Violet? Lily? Anyone here?" No one responded. They must have abandoned the gym while she left. Misty sighed; her sisters were so irresponsible sometimes. Good thing there weren't that many trainers coming to challenge them these days, so they could afford to slip out every once in a while.

She then headed to the bathroom to take a shower. As the water hit her naked flesh, she wondered what Gary was doing right now. Probably sitting behind his computer, eating some Mac & cheese or something. What was she going to do now that she had returned? Go back to her Gym Leader duties, and go fishing on her days off? She sighed and slumped against the wall of the shower, causing the hot water to hit her face. No real friends, no contact with old friends, no romance, trainer battles were stale and easy, and her sisters were as annoying as ever. Misty's life really wasn't all that exciting anymore, and she caught a glimpse of how much fun it could be again in the last few days. Spending time over at the lab in Pallet Town cheered her up a lot – but that was a onetime thing only. There was no turning back to that, no matter how much she wanted to stay there for a few more extra days. It was fun, but she had a life to return to.

Misty turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, quickly grabbing a towel to keep herself warm. She dried herself off and was deep in thought the whole time. Why should it be a onetime thing only? Couldn't she just seek out contact on her own? There was nothing stopping her from calling Gary right now and have a friendly chat with him. Who knows, they could really become friends, since she did enjoy his company. Determined and with a new attitude, Misty exited the shower and walked over to the videophone. She dialed Professor Oak's number, and hoped Gary would pick up the phone. Feeling like 10 years old all over again, Misty hoped that she wasn't the only one who thought that there could be a friendship between them.

The phone rang a few times before the screen turned on, showing Gary Oak, who was surprisingly, not in his lab coat this time.

Seeing that mess of hair along with those green eyes made Misty feel like she had never left the lab in the first place. "Hi!" she said cheerfully and smiled at him. "What's with the hoodie?" she asked immediately afterwards. It was weird not seeing him adorn the white coat she had grown accustomed to, but instead he was wearing a brown hoodie.

"Hello to you too. I see you arrived safe and sound back in Cerulean City," he said slowly, with his eyebrows furrowed, and completely ignoring her question. "And took a shower," he said, noting her wet hair.

"You have no idea how long that trip took! It took me three hours of walking in the dark to get back, my feet are still hurting!" she complained, despite not even remembering much of all that walking she did. Her feet definitely remembered though.

Gary chuckled at her. "Next time, I can offer you a ride back."

Misty's ears perked up at the word 'next time', and thought that maybe she wasn't so crazy about seeking out a friendship with him. "Oh that would be too troublesome for you, I know you can be busy."

"Suit yourself, I haven't been using my convertible a lot anyway."

"You still have that red car from years ago?" asked Misty surprised.

"It's sitting in the garage at the moment, gathering dust. Haven't found much of a use for it since I don't travel anymore."

"Does that mean you have your driver's license already?"

"I've been driving since I was 12, Misty," he pointed out with a chuckle. "A driver's license means nothing if your last name is Oak."

Misty pouted, a bit jealous he was able to drive, yet she still had to rely on her own two feet, or the use of pokemon to travel around. "I wish I knew how to drive," she said thoughtfully.

"Then why don't I teach you?"

Gary showing her how to drive? Where did that idea come from? No matter what idea Gary might have had, hearing him say something that indicated he wanted to see her again made Misty jump a bit in excitement. An excuse to go do something else for a change! She would gladly take it.

"You would do that?" she asked happily.

The young man nodded his head, his brown bangs almost touching his eyes in the process. "Sure, I don't mind. It would give me a chance to get away from the everyday research I've been doing."

It was then that she remembered she had gym duties; while it still wasn't her turn yet in a few more days, she couldn't suddenly go up to him and start driving lessons. She would have to wait at least 10 days to even see him again, a fact that saddened her and damped her high spirits. Misty hung her head down reluctantly and sighed.

"I have gym duties next week though. I can't leave the gym then."

"Then you'll just have to wait a while," he said while flashing a bright smile.

That smile meant the world to her, it meant Misty could be friends with Gary, because it seemed he had no objections to seeing her again. Who knew that Gary Oak could be a friend of hers when all they did was insult each other when they were kids? Times sure had changed, and Misty hoped it would make her a life a little less boring with him in it. Friends with Gary, yeah, that sounded nice.

"Use that time to train your Gyarados, I'd say."

Misty pouted at the suggestion. "Well then, maybe _you_ should learn how to cook."

"Never," he drawled out.

"Fine, go poison yourself while I'm gone now. There's no one to stop you."

"Actually," he said, then lifted up his hands to make them show up on the screen, they were wrapped around a cup of Mac & Cheese. It seemed he had been in the middle of eating it when she had called.

"Wow, I haven't even been gone that long yet! Just a few hours and you're already back to eating that crap."

"Quick and easy crap," he corrected her.

"That's nothing to be boasting about."

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna continue eating this 'crap', and ending the call, 'kay?"

"Suit yourself," she said, then saw him flick his hand at her as a small gesture and ended the call. Despite their banter, Misty felt a lot better now that she had spoken to him again.

"Misty, are you finally off of the phone?" wailed her sister Violet right after the call ended.

Misty shot her sister a dirty look and walked away from the videophone. "I thought you weren't home."

"Oh no, we were, we just like, didn't hear you call us. Anyways, are you done with the phone now?"

"Are you not going to ask me how my trip went?"

Violet huffed loudly. "Do you really think I'm patient enough to listen to that?"

"Good point," said Misty with a sigh.

"Anyways, now that you're back, it's your turn to take over the Gym again," said Violet, reminding Misty of her boring life at the Gym once more.

Misty simply nodded her head, then walked out the room to let Violet use the videophone. She was back in her own bedroom and crashed on her bed, falling asleep straight away.

Misty finally took on her gym duties again, and battled the odd trainer every once in a while. She hadn't lost once, and made a few trainers cry when she beat them. She trained Gyarados as much as she could, to make sure he wouldn't ever go ballistic anymore. This also meant she was using him to pummel new trainers.

It wasn't like she was_ trying_ to beat them up so brutally on purpose, but Misty had a new spark inside of her she couldn't get rid of. It excited her, it made her feel pumped up, and she battled with all her might. Which meant that beginner trainers would sadly lose their battles. Misty blamed her new spark on her time spent with Gary.

After she had called him that one time, Misty had gotten into the habit of calling him once every day to discuss their boring life together, or to simply bug him for something interesting to hear. It was impossible to stop her own fingers as she dialed the number on the videophone, since every time she was alone and had nothing to do, her mind would tell her to call him up and chat.

It was mostly small talk, Gary would tell her how his research was going, and she would tell him of her battles with gym trainers. Every once in a while, he would say he kind of missed her food, he was getting tired of the Mac & Cheese. Misty would joke that he should put a bucket next to his bed, just in case he ate some bad Mac & Cheese again. It was oddly very familiar, and it was the kind of company Misty has missed for a very long time. The weirdest thing of course, was that she was randomly chatting about anything with _Gary Oak_, and actually enjoying it. Who knew that she would end up being friends with Ash's infamous rival?

Then again, there was a time where she thought she'd be best friends with Ash forever. Misty snorted inwardly, scoffing at such a notion she held to be true a long time ago. Times have changed, and she wasn't that Misty anymore. Ash wasn't that Ash anymore, and Gary wasn't that Gary anymore – all the more reasons for her to move on and become friends with him, because he made her life less boring, despite having put her life in danger a couple of times.

"Hey I just realized, wouldn't it be better if I stayed the night once you pick me up?" said Misty towards the videophone.

Gary, who was on the other end, raised his dark eyebrows. "Why's that? You miss that ugly bed?"

Misty gave him a small smile. "Well, I'm sure it'll take a long time to even teach me how to drive, and then I have to go back... and ugh, it's just a lot of traveling. It'd be better if I stayed over and went back home the next day."

The brunette ran his hand through his long spiky hair, thinking about what she had proposed. "You might as well stay over a couple of days then."

"Oh?" she said surprised. "Why, miss me so much?" Misty winked at him.

"If you stay the extra day, I can take you back home with the car so you don't have to walk, I'm otherwise busy with research."

"Okay, that's fine by me. Are you sure you're not just saying that so I can cook an extra day for you, right?"

Gary laughed at her teasing. "I'd consider that a payment for letting you sleep in my spare bedroom."

"Like that bedroom has any worth."

"Well, I'm not the one sleeping in it, so I don't particularly care."

"I'll just steal _your _room then."

"I'd like to see you try."

They both grinned at each other, their teasing being a sort of daily thing they did now, and all in good faith of course. Misty always felt a lot happier after getting off of the phone with him, talking to a friend every day again was definitely something she had really missed.

Though what made her secretly the happiest, was when Gary called her on his own one day, making her put a battle on hold, asking her how her day went. After having to put up with people who never called her, it was such a pleasant surprise to see Gary take the effort of talking to her, despite them only knowing each other for a week. Compared to Ash, who would ring once every blue moon, Gary was a stark contrast, and she much preferred it.

"Misty, you need to buy a cellphone already. You can't just keep hogging that videophone all for yourself," said Daisy, the eldest sister, interrupting her phonecall with Gary.

Misty turned towards her sister and sighed; she was sort of right. "I don't need one, okay? Besides, all three of you have one yourself, so why don't you use it when I'm on the videophone?"

"Now now Misty, just because we all have fabulous cellphones, that doesn't mean people don't still call us on the videophone. Now, off with you, it's our turn."

Misty rolled her eyes and ended the conversation with Gary so that Daisy could call someone. As the days passed on, nearing their next meeting, Misty finally dumped herself in front of the videophone one last time before seeing Gary again, making sure none of her sisters were around to complain.

"How about I'll pick you up tomorrow? Then you don't have to walk all the way over here," said Gary on the opposite side.

"That'd be great, three hours is a very long time!" she replied with a small giggle. "When will you get here?"

"I'll come pick you up during lunch, so about 2 o' clock. Though I don't know where exactly you live, it's near the gym, right?"

"Yeah, our house is attached to the gym, so just pick me up there."

"See you then."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow," she said with a very wide smile.

Gary gave her a curt nod before ending the call.

Misty hummed to herself as she went back to her gym duties, wondering how tomorrow would be. It had been a long 10 days being pumped to go see him again. She was going to learn how to drive a car, something she had never managed to do! She had already packed a few clothes, since she was planning to stay the night again. It was unbelievable how giddy she was feeling about this entire engagement, it was like she was 10 years old all over again, going on her first adventure. She missed that feeling, so she wanted to hold onto it for as long as she could.

"Hey Misty, are you going somewhere?" Lily walked into the room and inspected her backpack.

"For once, yes I am," she said proudly.

"No way, like, you have friends? I can't believe it."

Misty shot her sister an evil glare, then ushered her out of her bedroom.

The redhead then laid down on her bed, lifting up her head to see the time on her clock above her bed, and saw it was only 8 PM, a bit early to go to bed. However, she was really excited, and didn't have much to do anymore for today, so she forced herself to sleep early. As she lay in bed with her lights turned off, her pajamas pulled on, and her backpack sitting on her desk, she kept breaking out into a grin. It really did feel like she was about to start another pokemon adventure again, though this time it wasn't a pokemon adventure, but much more mundane. Misty was going to visit a friend and hang out – something which she hadn't done in ages, and it felt good.

Luckily, she managed to fall asleep after turning and twisting for about an hour, unable to keep her thoughts from drifting to Gary and her car lessons. She woke up again when being prodded by one of her sisters – Daisy maybe – who kept calling her name and then shaking her body.

"What, what?" asked Misty annoyed and finally cracked open her eyes.

"Your boyfriend is here," mentioned Daisy with a sly smile.

When Misty realized the clock said 2:30, her eyes flew wide open and she scrambled out of bed, pushing Daisy out of the way and quickly getting dressed. How could she even sleep for that long? She went to bed early for heaven's sake! That should not make her sleep longer! She ignored her sister's taunting, and hopped out of the room with her backpack swung over her shoulder, and shoving her foot into her shoe. The redhead almost stumbled out of the front doors, onto the sidewalk, where she was met with a dusty red car and a person in khaki pants who was leaning against it. Misty's eyes traveled upwards and saw Gary take off his sunglasses and gave her a weird look.

"Miss Waterflower is definitely not Miss Sunshine when she wakes up," he said with a mischievous smile.

Misty was temporarily stunned, partly from the fact because she just woke up and was still half asleep, and partly because his red car really_ was_ full of dust. He hadn't been lying when he said it was gathering dust in his garage. She was surprised the thing even worked, let alone bring him all the way over to Cerulean City.

"Neither is your car," she finally responded. Then she started to comb her fingers through her unruly hair. A bedhead look might look good on Gary, but she looked like a monster from the sea with that kind of hair.

Gary pushed himself away from the car, dusting off his pants afterwards since it was so damn dusty, then placed his sunglasses back on and turned to address her. "You ready to go?" It just seemed so silly to have Gary act all cool while his car was drowning underneath a sea of dust.

Misty brushed her hair with her fingers one more time, then straightened up her back and gave him a small nod. Hell yeah she was ready to go, she'd been waiting to do this ever since she left the place. She then chuckled softly at seeing Gary coming to pick her up at the gym. Not in a million years would she imagine this kind of scene playing out.

Gary opened the door and sat in the driver's seat, turning on the engine which sounded a little bit frightening, as if it was about to die. Misty went around the car and opened the door on the other side, plopping into the seat, closing the door and quickly putting on her seat belt.

"How old is this car?" she asked curiously, half doubting it could take them back to Pallet Town.

Gary placed his hands on the steering wheel. "About 9 years old."

"Damn, and it still works? I'm surprised, very surprised. How long did it take you to get here?"

"Not even 20 minutes."

He then pushed down the gas pedal and off they went. Misty's hair that she had just combed with her fingers went everywhere as the wind blew through it hard. She sighed at her effort going in vain, but then smiled brightly as she realized she enjoyed feeling the wind in her hair. She looked over to Gary and his lips were also curled in a smirk. It was a very nice day indeed. After having been on the videophone all this time, it was nice to actually see him in person. Misty secretly really missed him – or had she missed the excitement he brought with him?

"So what would happen if you were to get pulled over right now?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

Gary simply smirked, as if he knew something but wasn't going to tell her.

She wanted to punch him in the arm for being so smug, but restrained herself. "Won't tell me huh? Well then, I'll just assume you're going to go hyperspeed and outrun them. If you do that, I'll kill you. I can't have a police record, not with all the good things I've done in my life!"

"Good things huh? As far as I remember, you were getting into a lot of trouble back in the good 'ol days."

"It was all for a good reason! Plenty of times Team Rocket tried to pull one over on us, and we had to improvise."

"Improvise being a substitute for the word 'steal' here, right?"

"Hey, I never stole anything," she said defensively.

"Really? I was right there when you stole that little kid's bike years ago."

Misty turned red at the memory. "That wasn't me, that was Ash! How dare you confuse us!"

"Red hair, black hair – same thing," he said offhandedly. "Nevertheless, you didn't stop Ash, and hopped on the back, am I right?"

"The correct term would be 'borrowing', we were _borrowing_ his bike."

Gary simply grinned at her, not buying her story at all. "It's much nicer having a bad Misty than a good Misty."

Misty then stretched her arms, and lifted her legs up so she could rest them on top of the dashboard, crossed. "Then you won't mind if I stay like this."

A laugh emerged from the brunette and he shook his head; he didn't mind at all. Misty gave him a slight sideways glance and pouted a bit, then retrieved her legs from the dashboard since it wasn't very comfortable to begin with.

"How'd you find this place so fast? I was sure you'd get lost."

Gary then pointed to a small little black screen on the dashboard that she had overlooked. She had no idea what it was though.

"GPS, it tells me exactly where to go. Just type in the address, and you'll get specific instructions on where to go. Pretty neat, huh?"

Misty looked at the little thing with a lot of interest. Back when they were traveling, they had to rely on maps, or god forbid – compasses to figure out where they were and where they had to go. Having something as little as this tell you exactly where to go would have been very useful indeed.

"I kinda want one of my own now," she said with a small giggle. "I've always relied on maps, you now?"

Gary took a hard turn to the left and fixated his eyes on the road, barely even listening anymore. "I never did," he stated simply.

"Really? How'd you get around when you were still a pokemon trainer then? I'm sure they didn't have those GP thingies back then."

"GPS," he corrected her.

"Whatever."

"Simple, I never needed to use a map because I was always surrounded by people who knew the way."

"Makes sense," she said as she thought back of those cheerleaders always following him. But she did meet him several times when he was alone. "But how about when you were alone?"

She saw him bite his lip and furrow his eyebrows a bit, reluctant to answer. Then he threw his head back at her with a dazzling smile. "My name is Gary Oak, I'm just _that_ awesome," he said in a highly conceited voice.

The redhead snorted in response, not buying a word he was saying, she knew he was acting arrogant on purpose just so she would stop questioning his travel methods. Fine, she can drop it if he wanted her to, it's not like they were really that close or anything. So Misty decided to stop pressing the issue any further and stayed in silence the entire ride until they arrived in Pallet Town. Being back in Pallet Town, along with Gary, felt like a breath of fresh air. She had been stuck at the Gym for over a week, so it felt great to be away from it, and instead spend her time with her new friend, Gary Oak.

"So," said Gary as he pulled into an empty parking lot. Misty could see the research lab in the background, standing on a hill. "Want to start right away, or do you want some instructions first?"

Misty simply grinned. "Move over!" she said happily, then unbuckled her seat belt and started to shove Gary out of his seat. He got the hint and quickly got out, and they switched places.

Misty slipped behind the steering wheel and placed her hands on it, it still being slightly warm because Gary had been holding it previously. This was so exiting! She was going to drive!

"Okay, the first thing you need to know is that left is the gas, and right is the brake. Since this is an automatic, you don't need to worry about switching gears."

While Gary was explaining some boring facts, such as checking your rear view mirror and stuff like that, she was barely listening because she wanted to start driving already. Gary noticed Misty's absentmindedness, and sighed loudly, then gave her a small smile.

"Want to drive?"

"Yes!"

"Okay then, first, put your seat belt on, I don't want you to die just yet."

"Hey!" she said indignantly, but put on her seat belt anyway, since she had almost forgotten about it.

"Both hands on the wheel."

Misty placed them on the wheel and looked at Gary with sparkling eyes for more instructions.

"Well, we don't have anyone here that you can crash into at the moment, so go knock yourself out, and slowly push down your foot on the gas."

"Which one is gas again?"

"The left one."

Suddenly the car pushed forward in one big jerky movement, causing both of them to be flung forwards, and landing in their seats again once Misty quickly took off her foot from the pedal. She looked over at Gary, scared she did it wrong.

"That's okay, pretty much all beginners do this. Try again, but _slowly_."

Misty gulped, but tried again. She slowly pushed her foot down on the pedal, and was delighted when the car slowly started to move ahead, at a snail's pace almost. Gary looked pleased at the result, and told her to keep pushing it down some more. The car started going faster and faster, and it was almost going to leave the parking lot if she wouldn't turn right now.

"Okay, hit the brake so I can teach you how to turn so we don't run into that tree ahead of us."

Misty giggled and took her foot off the pedal, but then somehow managed to put it back on the same spot, and instead of making the car stop, she made it rush forward in a blink of an eye.

"No, brake! I said brake!"

Gary might have said to brake on time, but Misty got flustered and confused the brake with the gas pedal once more, causing the car to go flying forward, right into the tree. Misty felt the air get knocked out of her, and the airbag hit her straight in the face, to catch her from slamming her face into the steering wheel. The car stopped running, and smoke could be seen coming from the hood. Misty pulled the seat belt back, as it was strangling her neck, and she looked over at Gary to see if he was alright.

"Are you okay!" she said in a panicked voice.

Gary looked at her with wide eyes and cleared out his throat. "The question you should direct that to is my car."

If he was well enough to make sarcastic remarks, then he was alright. Misty sighed in relief, but was still anxious after she just crashed a car into a tree, the impact of it still trembling her body. This was worse than drowning! Gary finally popped out his seat belt and got out of the car, walking in front of the hood to observe the damage.

"Oh man, you really wrecked it! The only tree found in a mile and you managed to_ hit it_."

Misty buried her face in the airbag. "I'm so sorry!" she yelled into it, extremely embarrassed at her incompetence, and also still rather in shock. "I didn't mean to, I thought I was hitting the brake!"

Gary leaned over the hood, and stared through the broken glass at Misty, who was desperately trying to hide her shame.

"Sorry, I should have asked this first, but are you hurt anywhere?" he asked in a serious one.

Misty shook her red face to indicate she was fine, albeit a bit shaken.

"Good, so only the car got damaged."

"I'll pay you back!" she shrieked loudly. "I promise!"

Gary crossed his arms and stared at her with a stern look. "Do you know how much this car cost me?"

"I don't know, but I'll get the money together, I'll pay you back!" she said, almost at the verge of crying.

Gary's gaze on her made her feel so weak, and she was really trying to fight back her tears. She had ruined his car, and probably ruined any kind of friendship they might have had. Then suddenly, Gary's laughter rung through her ears, and she looked up in surprise, shocked to find Gary genuinely laughing at her.

"It's alright Misty, there's no need to pay me back," he said while still chuckling softly. "Don't break your head over it – and uh, I kind of mean that literally as well, seriously don't," he said while eying her suspiciously because Misty's eyes had started to water.

"I'm so sorry, it's all my …" her eyes then finally gave in and tears flowed down her face. "It's all my fault!"

Gary's green eyes grew wide in shock, and he quickly walked over to her side and opened her door. He undid the seatbelt for her and dragged her out of the car. "Don't cry! Come on, I'm telling you it's alright!"

Misty looked at him with watery eyes and sniffed loudly. "I will pay you back, honestly!" she said in between sniffs. She wiped her runny nose with her sleeve, and stared at the ground, wishing for it to swallow her up.

Gary placed a hand on Misty's hair and roughed it up. "I was prepared for something like this you know. It was a car I got ages ago, and I don't even use it anymore. You don't need to pay me back, you didn't do anything wrong Misty – in fact, it was my fault for letting you drive straight away in the first place."

The redhead looked up at him, feeling just a little bit better, and she had finally stopped crying. "So … so … you don't hate me for it?"

Gary cocked his head to the side. "Hhmm, that's a damn good question."

Misty puffed up her cheeks and punched him in the arm. "Jerk!"

What surprised her is that he actually flinched back in pain. "Ouch, that actually hurt!"

"Oh I'm sorry! I thought you were alright," she said quickly, then grabbed his arm to inspect it for any kind of damage. She noticed a large red spot on his upper arm, almost near his shoulder. He'd probably crashed against the door to get that kind of mark.

Gary jerked his arm back and pulled his sleeve over the mark to cover it. "Nah, it's fine, it'll go away tomorrow."

"Maybe we should call an ambulance, just to make sure."

"Seriously Misty, it's not anything serious. What's more serious is that face of yours."

Misty sniffed for the last time and looked up at him. "Huh?" she said confused.

"You've got some blood on your forehead."

The girl shrieked out loud and started touching her forehead to see where she was bleeding from. When she didn't feel anything sticky, and instead found a mildly amused Gary, she pierced him with a very evil glare.

"Ohh, you're just enjoying this, aren't you!"

Gary shrugged and tried to hold back his laughter. "Kinda."

"Well, let's see if you like _this!_" Angered at him making a fool of her feelings, Misty pushed her feet off the ground so she could tackle Gary's midriff.

The tackle worked surprisingly well, as she took him down to the ground, and they both rolled along the dirt hill, eventually coming to a rest at the bottom not a few seconds later. Misty was laying on her back, right next to Gary, and they were both breathing heavily.

"Did _not_ see that one coming," said Gary after he took a large breath.

Misty merely smirked in satisfaction, he deserved it for making fun of her.

"I think you managed to break my ass, Misty."

"I wasn't aware of your ass having any bones in it."

"Oh it sure does. Now my beautiful buttocks are all hurt, what are you going to do about it?"

Misty started to laugh out loud at him. "You're Gary Oak – I'm pretty sure your ass is insured!"

Gary joined in on her laughter. "I don't know, I'll have to check with my insurance!"

They both laughed together, staring at the sky, until they finally stopped and laid with each other in silence. Misty shifted her weight around on the dirt, being very painfully aware that she managed to bruise herself more rolling down the hill, than crashing a car into a tree.

"Sorry about your car."

"I never used it anyway."

"I'll pay you back."

"I'd rather you not."

"I'll feel guilty for the rest of my life, until I do."

"Well then, how about you pay me back by becoming a junior assistant to the lab?"

Misty finally turned her head towards him and furrowed her orange eyebrows. "What does that even mean?"

"It means, come whenever I tell you to," he said with a chuckle. "How does that sound?"

Misty bit her lip, thinking about his proposal. "Hmm, be a slave to my guilty conscience, or to Gary? Which one should I choose?"

"I hear the latter comes with great bonuses," he pointed out.

"Do I get paid vacation days?"

"Who said anything about money?"

"Well, I must get_ something_ in return, for all that work I would be doing, right?"

"As I recall, you're supposed to be paying me off for the car you just wrecked."

"You got a point there. Though I remember you owing me big for that one time that involved a lot of water."

"Really? You still remember that? That was like _aaaages_ ago. This is now."

She snorted. "Oh, I see, that's how you want to do it huh."

He cracked a smile at her. "So how about it?"

Misty smiled in return. "When do I start?"


	4. Chapter 4

**It's Research**

**A/N: **this chapter was getting too long, so I split it up into two chapters. This part is mainly the build-up to chapter 5, where things finally start snowballing from. Enjoy the new chapter!

**Chapter 4**

* * *

><p>Misty pulled her feet up on Gary's chair and leaned back against the cabinet, which she assumed was meant for archiving files. She was sitting on the desk, right next to the computer, since it seemed they had a shortage of actual chairs. Her sea green eyes looked over to Gary, who was as always, concentrated on whatever he was typing on the computer. Misty then stared back down to her crossword puzzle. It was something she had managed to stuff in her backpack, figuring that she'd be walking back all bored on her way home. As she came across a word that was 10 letters long, she nudged Gary in his side with her foot, knowing that this was the only way to get his attention. He looked up at her with his eyebrows furrowed.<p>

"10 letters for an ancient flying pokemon," she said innocently. He was the Pokemon Professor, shouldn't he know?

"Aerodactyl." Gary then continued to type again on his keyboard.

Misty filled in the words; quite happy to have a Pokemon Professor by her side.

It seemed, being a 'junior assistant' meant sitting on her ass while watching Gary do work. It wasn't bad or anything, she knew what his purpose was. It was his own weird way of asking her to hang out with him, when he had mentioned the proposal. Misty of course, still felt horribly guilty after wrecking his car yesterday, but was really glad he didn't seem to be mad at her for it. She really liked this new Gary, she couldn't imagine doing this to him when he was 12 years old, they'd be enemies until the day she died. She was still planning on paying him back though, but she wouldn't tell him about it.

A few minutes passed in silence, with the only sound filling the room was the typing on a keyboard and the scribbling on paper. Half an hour passed, and Misty had almost but completed her crossword puzzle, when Gary suddenly stretched and cheered out loud.

"I finished it!" he said happily, then turned his head to look at her.

Misty hopped off of the desk and leaned over his shoulder to look at the screen. What she saw, she didn't quite understand, but she gave him a pat on the back anyway. "Good job!" she said, genuinely happy for him. "What is it that you finished?" she then asked awkwardly.

Gary gave her a small chuckle, but explained it nonetheless. "It's a report on the research I did, you know, the one you've been working on with me?"

"Oh, I see. Well, congratulations! What will you do with it?"

"Show it to other Pokemon Professors that will scrutinize every word. But not before proof-reading it several times."

"Sounds tough."

"It is."

"But I'm sure you'll do fine! From what I've seen, you're a really great Pokemon Professor," she said, not quite knowing why she was complimenting him this much. But seeing him smile proudly in return made it worth it. That, and she was hoping to make things up a bit in return for the car.

"Oh hey Misty, didn't know you were here," said Tracey who walked up behind them.

Misty saluted him like a military officer. "Misty, the junior assistant reporting for duty, sir!"

Tracey looked at her weirdly. "What's up with her?" he asked, directing it to Gary.

Gary simply shrugged. "Beats me, she thinks she's working here now."

Misty leaned closer to Gary and started pulling at his long spiky hair. "What was that, Oak?" she said in a low voice.

Gary simply leaned back in his chair, ignoring that Misty's fingers were entangled with his hair. "You'll be seeing a lot more of Misty now, so get used to it Tracey."

"Well, I don't mind at all, it's always good to see you Mist," he said happily.

It's been a while since anyone called her Mist, it was usually Ash who did that. Feeling rather agitated at the memory, Misty finally left Gary's chestnut hair alone.

"So what exactly do you do around here, Tracey? " she asked as she was interested in what Tracey could _possibly_ do, besides draw.

Tracey started walking ahead, going to a different part of the room. "I mainly help with databasing and archiving, and I'm usually the errand boy."

"Usually," repeated Gary. "All the other times, it's _me_."

"Well Gary, it would do you some good to get out of this lab every once in a while!"

Misty snickered at their banter, and Gary gave her a mean look when he noticed. "I can't possibly leave the safety of this lab, don't you know there are hungry women out there who want to throw themselves at me?" he then retorted.

"I don't recall any hungry women throwing themselves at you," mused Misty with a smile. "Unless you call that old lady you helped cross the street a 'hungry woman'." Misty recalled Gary helping an old lady across the street as they went shopping for groceries this morning.

Tracey simply laughed at that piece of information, which made Gary growl – he was definitely losing this witty battle of smart remarks.

"At least I have_ some_ sort of interaction with women lately, I don't think you could say the same."

That hit the spot, as Tracey turned red once the words left Gary's arrogant face. He shook his fist, all from across the room, and sputtered a few curse words at the brunette. Misty was very amused by all this, Gary certainly hadn't lost his wit, nor his arrogance. Except this time, she certainly didn't mind. She remembered all the times he made fun of Ash, and while she admitted that some of the insults were spot-on, she was clearly infatuated with Ash and would defend him no matter what. Yet now, now she could hear the underlying playful tone in his remarks, Gary was still witty and arrogant, but he didn't mean a thing of what he said.

Misty smiled and then messed up Gary's hair, just because she could.

"Hey hey, don't go messing up my hair," he said, holding up his hands to shield her away.

"I'm not, it's always messy, I'm just cleaning it up," she said with a smirk.

"It's not messy, it's an actual hairstyle, you know," he defended.

"Reeallly," she drawled out then messed it up even more once she saw an opening.

He managed to catch one of her wrists so she could stop. "You sure do like touching my hair, don't you."

Misty's mind went blank for a second, as he did seem to have a point there. She then grinned slyly at him, yanking her wrist back. "It's just so awful, I can't help but _want _to fix it!" She then let a giggle escape and roughed it up even more.

After going back and forth and messing up his hair, and being pinned down at her wrists, Misty finally gave up and hopped back up on the desk and continued to finish her crossword puzzle, while Gary did whatever he does best at the computer.

"Hey Tracey, I finished the report just now," he finally called out after a while of silence.

"Oh, the one Misty helped you with?"

Gary nodded and stretched out his arms behind the back of his head, sitting comfortably on his chair. "Yup, I'm just checking it for any errors right now."

Misty nudged him in his side with her foot yet again, he shot her an annoyed look. "How long will that take for you to be done?" she asked curiously.

"Oh I don't know, maybe a day or two. Three if you keep bugging me with your feet."

Misty simply smirked and nudged him in his side for good measure before returning to her own little world again. Gary did his thing, and she did hers, and not for a second did Misty think this was boring.

Who knew, just sitting on a desk next to Gary Oak keeping her company would actually manage to entertain her? Her life must have been really boring if this was entertaining to her. After an hour had passed were no one in the room had said anything, as two of them were doing actual lab work, Misty noticed she was getting hungry, so she hopped off the desk and started looking for the kitchen. She had made some lunch for herself and Gary, and stashed it into the refrigerator.

She had managed to drag him to the grocery store to get more food before they got to the lab, since he seemed to be living off of Mac & Cheese again, and it was not a memory she was very fond of. Of course she paid for all the food, since the guilt of wrecking his car would linger until the day she'd die. Luckily, he had barely mentioned the incident at all, he didn't seem very fazed by it. Maybe he was speaking the truth when he said he almost never used his car anyway.

Misty finally found her way to the kitchen and snatched her sandwiches from the fridge and returned to the lab. She dangled the piece of sandwich in front of Gary's face, causing him to stop typing and look up at her weirdly.

"What is this? Bait?" he asked, batting the sandwich away from his view.

"It's called lunch. Healthy lunch," she said and dropped the sandwich in front on his desk. Misty happily gobbled up her own sandwich, hopping back onto her desk that had sort of become _her_ spot.

"I'm not hungry," he said. A low growl from his stomach made him turn away his face in an attempt to hide it.

"Oh I see, you just don't want to eat my food. Well then," she leaned over to grab the sandwich she prepared for him in order to eat it herself, but her hand got slapped away from the food.

"No way, you gave it to me, it's mine now," he said while he slid the sandwich across the desk to the other side where she couldn't reach it.

"Tsk, so childish," she said jokingly. "Just admit it; you want to eat my food."

Gary reached for the sandwich and brought it closer to his mouth – almost in slow motion. He took a bite from her sandwich, his teeth sinking into the breath and tearing a piece of off it. His green eyes looked at her seriously and for a second, Misty was a bit mesmerized. "I want to eat your food," he said, as plain as day.

Arrogant, childish, honest – Misty had found out Gary could be a mixture of anything. So she broke out into a secret smile, knowing that she didn't find that to be a bad thing at all.

For the rest of the day, Misty focused on her crossword puzzle while Gary continued to work behind the computer. He wasn't kidding when he said he'd be busy today, after that fiasco with the car, he'd been busy all morning once they had managed to tow away the car and got some sleep.

Hours later and Professor Oak was closing up the lab. Gary had been scanning over some paperwork he printed, which probably contained the data of their research, ever since he left the lab along with her, going back to his house. Misty silently walked next to him, feeling the cold air hit her cheeks, while hearing the shuffling of papers fill her ears. It was quiet, but Misty was very comfortable being with Gary. The way his lab coat softly grazed her bare arm left her feeling a little nostalgic. Her eyes studied him as he was engrossed with reading the papers, barely paying attention to where he was going. In fact, if he wouldn't look up soon enough, he'd crash into a pole that was up ahead in his path. Misty did the right thing by yanking him sideways by his sleeve, immediately catching his attention.

"W-what was that for?" he said, caught off guard. Gary pulled all his papers together and held it up to his chest, his green eyes looking at her confused.

"You have one _fascinating_ concentration," said Misty with a hint of sarcasm.

He frowned at her. "They say that there's a tie between someone's intellect and their concentration power. The better they can concentrate, the smarter they probably are."

"Hahha, that just seems so Gary-like to say," said Misty after chuckling loudly. "Now Mister Professor, pay attention to where you walk, or don't complain when I pull you away so you don't run into things."

Gary simply clicked his tongue at her. "Yes, _mother_."

Misty jabbed him in the side with her elbow, which caused him to grunt in response, but kept quiet after that. He returned to reading his paperworks as they descended down the path to his house. Misty had to pull him to her side again when he was venturing off-course, then decided link her arm with his raised one to keep him from straying away from her. It was almost like babysitting a kid who didn't know how to pay attention to where they were going. Except Gary was much older, and too concentrated on reading.

They finally arrived at his house, and he quickly opened the door, not saying a word, then setting down his paperwork on the kitchen table. He slid out of his lab-coat, something which Misty found hard to take her eyes off, then resumed to reading his paperwork at the kitchen table.

"I guess that's my cue to cook us food," said Misty with a half hearted smile at Gary who was barely aware she was even in the same room.

"You're so weird," she said while staring at him, studying his serious expression. Despite this weird knack he had, it was sort of interesting to see that serious gaze in his green eyes. It almost looked like he was angry, reading over those lines with a hint of passion. In a way, it was a lustful look. Misty's cheeks turned red after thinking that Gary was lustful, then whirled around and started to prepare for dinner.

As Misty prepared the ingredients for her dinner, she casted a sideways glance at Gary. "Hey, Gary?" she called out at him.

"Hmm?" he said in response. It was a miracle he even managed to give her a response when his eyes were focused on all the papers spread out on the table.

"Since you can't take me back tomorrow," she said, wincing a bit at the memory of crashing his car, "why not go to the beach with me instead? I can walk home myself afterwards. It's been ages since I've been to the beach in Pallet Town anyways, I really wanted to go for a while now." Misty bit her lip as she awaited Gary's response.

"Sure."

That sounded more like an answer to a question that could have been anything. Misty sighed with a smile; at least this way she could manipulate him into doing things, regardless if he wanted to go or not. A promise is a promise!

Misty happily returned to cooking, and after twenty minutes, finished up their delicious – and healthy – dinner. She plated the food, which contained some lovely pork chops, decorated with mashed potatoes and a healthy bunch of broccoli. She pushed away some of the papers on the table, and placed down the plate in front of Gary, who finally looked up at her.

"Oh, you were cooking?"

Misty didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Sorry, let me clean this up," he said quickly, then started to clean the table of all the papers, safely putting them away. "Oh hey, that smells good!" Gary noted.

"Why thank you," said Misty with a smile. "So you're still coming with me to the beach tomorrow, right?"

"Huh?" he said, his eyebrows raising. "Did I say that?"

"Yup," she said with a sneaky smile, slowly cutting her pork chop in half. "Right when you sat down at the table and started to read some more."

Gary let out a healthy laugh. "Misty, if you wanted to go to the beach with me, then just ask! You don't have to ask me when I'm not paying attention and I'll agree to anything."

Misty blushed a bit at that, then remembered to getting Gary to agree he was in love with Ash, and snickered quietly in herself. They both ate Misty's delicious dinner, and she finally convinced Gary to stop reading those papers already – and it was finally time for bed.

"How does around 10 o'clock sound?" asked Gary as he stood by his bedroom door.

"To go to the beach? Sounds good to me!" replied Misty with a smile.

"Okay then, good night," he said and finally opened his door. Feeling curious as to what his bedroom looked like, Misty peered over his shoulder.

When she saw his big and luxurious bed in the middle of the room, her mouth dropped to the floor; he was sleeping between silk bed sheets! Misty pushed herself into his room, still perplexed and insanely jealous at his bed.

"You sleep in that?" she said outrageously, pointing her index finger at his bed.

Gary, whose hand was on the doorknob, rolled his eyes at her. "_No_, I sleep on the floor."

"That is so unfair!" she whined and fell on top of Gary's king sized bed. "I have to sleep in such a tiny bed, while you get all of this for yourself?"

"Hey, I'm an Oak," he said as a matter of fact. "We get what we want."

"Arrogant bastard," she mumbled as she snuggled close to his pillows, finding out that his bed was very soft and comfortable. That bastard had silk sheets – it was like sitting on a sea of clouds, or something like that. It was a big difference from the old and worn bed she had been sleeping in while staying over there.

"Alright, enough fangirling over my bed, get out."

Misty held onto one of the pillows and viciously shook her head. "No way, I like it here!"

"Well, well. I've had girls admiring me, even had a stalker or two, but I've never had a girl who so obviously wanted to sleep with me."

Misty grunted loudly and flung the pillow she was holding towards his face. Gary surprisingly dodged it as if it was no big deal at all. She then spread all of her limbs as far as she could to hog the entire bed for herself.

"You can go ahead and sleep in the guestroom, I'll be taking this bed for myself," she said dreamily.

Suddenly, she was grabbed at by her ankles, and dragged off of the bed, landing with a cry of pain on the wooden floor. Gary towered over her with an arrogant smirk.

"No one can sleep in my bed other than me," he said, obviously taking pleasure in bullying her like that.

Misty slowly got up, and dusted off her hot pants as if nothing ever happened. She then slowly stepped closer to his bed again, but Gary stretched out his arm to physically block her. Misty smirked, then elbowed him in his side, causing him to stumble backward, and she launched herself forwards, falling on top of his bed once more.

"Mine!" she said childishly and grabbed another one of his pillows, which there were a ton of on his bed.

"Okay redhead, you brought this upon yourself," said Gary as he composed himself after being elbowed in his ribs.

What happened was a series of brawls and take-overs. Each trying to get the other one to get off the bed, while trying to stay on there themselves as long as they could. Pillows were hurled across the room, elbows were jabbed into ribs, some hair was pulled, and Misty even managed to use a tickle attack on Gary to prevent him from taking ownership of his bed once more. Needless to say, they both ended up on the floor, beaten and exhausted from their rough play. She hadn't felt like such a kid since forever. Seriously, when was the last time she had become so physical and just messed around until her body was aching all over? Misty pushed herself up so her back was leaning against the edge of the bed.

"Oh man, I'm aching all over. More than I was yesterday," said Misty as she robbed a sore spot on her leg, which Gary had managed to kick accidentally while she was tickling him.

"I can't even be bothered to get up anymore," said Gary with a loud huff.

Misty then smiled wickedly, and slowly crawled on top of the bed. "Then you won't mind me taking thi—YAAHH!" she screamed in surprise as Gary yanked her back onto the floor, and her head fell straight onto his lap.

"If I'm too exhausted to get up there, then so are you." He held an arm across her stomach to keep her from any attempts at concurring his bed, and to keep her steady on his lap. He was now sitting in the same position as she was previously in; leaning with his back against the edge of the bed, with his legs spread out across the floor – and with her head on his lap.

"I will sleep in there someday," said Misty as she yawned.

"Keep on dreaming, red," he said, awarding her a new nickname.

Not soon after, and they had both drifted off to sleep, not even caring they were both in an uncomfortable position, as well as on the floor and not in a bed.

The next day, Misty was sitting on Gary's couch, watching tv in the morning. An annoying commercial came on blaring about the fact that Gym Leaders sucked these days, and sighed loudly. She was disturbed by Gary who was coming down the stairs. He was still wearing the same thing as yesterday, since he sort of fell asleep in it, but so did she.

"When did you get up?" he asked in a scratchy voice.

"Right when you kneed my face."

Gary's sleepy eyes grew wide in disbelief. "I did _what?_"

Misty turned her face so she could show Gary her left cheek. It had a large red mark on it, as if she were hit by something blunt. Or rather, Gary's knee. "Your knee, in my face," she said simply. "But it's okay, in return I drooled on your crotch."

Gary quickly looked down on his pants, and he could spot the faint glimmer of dried-up drool in the middle of his crotch area. His cheeks started to turn a bright pink and he quickly went back upstairs again. Misty laughed out loud, finding it rather amusing. She found herself waking up when she had managed to roll off of Gary's lap during her sleep, and then got a real good wake-up call when he twitched and crashed his knee into her face. It hurt, of course, but once Misty noticed that minutes before, she had been drooling on his lap, she simply smiled sheepishly and left him sleeping on the floor all alone.

It was a nice day today indeed. Especially since she was going to go to the beach today with him, though she did feel rather sore. All that fighting yesterday left her with a few bruises, and now she has another one forming on her cheek as well. Not to mention she crashed his car a couple of days ago …

After twenty minutes, Gary came downstairs again, this time wearing different clothes, and his hair looking a lot more tamed.

"Alright, let's go to the beach, red."

Misty's ears perked up at the nickname, but said nothing, and simply gave him a wide smile; happy to know he was going to the beach with her. It took about half an hour of walking to reach the beach of Pallet Town. It was a huge difference between Cerulean's beach, since it was always crowded by tourists and the like. Pallet Town had no such thing, and the beach was essentially deserted.

"Wow, it's been so long since I've been to the beach with someone!" said Misty excitedly, then quickly ran towards the sand, kicking off her shoes.

Gary lagged behind her. "I thought you'd be coming to the beach pretty often. Being a water-type Gym Leader and all."

"Sometimes, it's just a bit too crowded really. Besides, when I do go, I go alone," she said a bit sadly. This was starting to remind her of memories she spent with Ash at the beach. She stared at the ocean, her eyes glazed over and unfocused. "Is Unova far from here?" she asked randomly.

Gary plopped down in the sand. "Pretty far. Takes about an entire day to get there by plane."

"I see," she said simply.

"Ash is currently training there, isn't he?"

"Last thing I heard of him, he was indeed in Unova. But he hasn't called me once since he's been there."

"Not much on speaking terms, are you?" he asked rhetorically.

Misty walked over to the waves washing up on the beach, her toes getting wet. "I guess I lost that privilege once I became a Gym Leader."

Suddenly she heard Gary try to hold in his laughter behind her back. Misty whirled around; he thought that was funny? On some kind of level, she thought Gary at least knew how she felt about the subject of Ash. So hearing him laugh at her was like a blow to her stomach.

"What's so funny?" she spat out.

Gary quickly cleared out his throat, then smirked at her. "Well, you see, that jerk can't even spare one measly phonecall for over a year – yet I swear, I've been behind the videophone far more than I was behind the computer this past week!"

Misty smiled; that was true. They called every day, even if it was just nonsense they talked about. Gary even called her himself, something which Ash hasn't managed to do in years.

"My sisters were already joking I should get a cellphone for hogging the videophone every day," she said with a small laugh. The redhead then stepped into the water, walking further and further ahead until her ankles were submerged.

"Hey Misty," Gary called out. She turned around to face him. "About that junior assistant thing." His green eyes avoided hers as he spoke, and he shyly scratched the back of his neck. "I just used that as an excuse to hang out with you more … There is actually no such position."

Misty kicked up some water from the ocean, reaching almost far enough to splash on him. She laughed happily, covering her face with her hands; those words washed away any bad feelings that still lingered around because of Ash. Here was Gary Oak, admitting that he indeed, wanted to be around her. She could have never imagined her life turning out this way, because Gary could be such a smart-ass when they were younger, always teasing her and her friends. Yet now, they each found a mutual friendship.

"What?" he said a bit embarrassed. That shy side of him was pretty cute.

"I knew that," she said with a wide smile. Misty then finally left the waters, picked up her shoes from the sand and walked over to Gary, then sat down right next to him. She gave him a warm smile, while he tried to nonchalantly turn his face away, pretending to be cool and aloof, despite Misty now knowing he wanted to be friends with her as well. At least she wasn't the only one who really liked spending time with him. In fact, she hadn't had this much fun or adventure in years!

They remained silent for a while. It wasn't an awkward silence, but it felt rather comfortable. Misty dug her hands into the warm sand and then slowly lifted up her fingers one by one, letting the sand fall through them. She then felt her fingers hit something hard; it was a seashell. She picked it up in between her index and thumb, then examined it close-up.

"Oh hey look, I found a pretty one!" she said excitedly. It was a small seashell, pure white, so white it looked almost fake, as if someone painted it that way.

Gary snorted at her tiny little seashell, as he then turned away from her, and grabbed something from the sand on his side. He lifted it up to show it to her; a cream coloured spindle shell. Misty bit her lip, a bit envious since it was more interesting than her plain one.

"Mine's better," he said with an arrogant smile, toying around with the shell in between his fingers.

Misty quickly used her eyes to scan the beach sand around her, and spotted a spiral shaped shell, then pulled it out of the sand and shoved it into Gary's face. He simply chuckled, then showed her another, prettier shell. They continued to do this for about two more minutes until they had a pile of shells stacked up besides them.

"There's so many pretty ones," said Misty with a beaming smile.

"Yeah, too bad we don't have a bucket with us or anything, we could carry it home."

Misty stared at Gary's serious face for a second. "Really? I didn't peg you as a guy who liked keeping seashells. And I've got pockets, you know."

Gary picked one up from the pile and threw it in the air, catching it with his hand. "Shells are like fossils; they can be very interesting to study."

"Right. Pokemon Professor and all that. I just like 'em because I like anything associated with water."

"What a shallow reason," he said with a laugh.

Misty puffed up her cheeks. "As if yours isn't!"

They said nothing for a while as Misty started to play with the shells. After a minute or so, she spoke up. "Why did you want to become a Professor? I thought you liked pokemon battles."

She had always been curious about the reason, ever since she found out he stopped training and became a Pokemon Professor instead. Gary slowly turned his head towards her, and the ocean breeze made his hair billow around in the wind, caressing his face. At that moment, he looked as if he belonged in a magazine for celebrities. Misty quickly turned her head away.

"Hmmm," he drawled out. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Misty puffed up her cheeks for a second time, then punched him in the arm.

"Ouch!" he said while wincing.

"I'm so sorry! I forgot you had a bruise on that spot!" Misty had almost forgotten they were in a small car crash just two days ago. "How is it looking anyways?" she asked while she quickly rolled up his sleeve.

The bruise on his arm had turned big, like the size of her entire hand almost, covering mostly the upper part of his arm, and some of his shoulder. Not only that, it was a nasty yellow. Misty felt so guilty by looking at it; it was her fault he got that bruise. Gary quickly pulled his sleeve down to cover it up.

"It's nothing, it'll go away in a week."

"Sorry," she managed to squeak out.

Gary then messed up Misty's hair. "Don't worry about it. Besides, I got you back for it, right?" His fingers then gently grazed over her left cheek, catching her by surprise. The spot where his fingers were touching her lit up like a light bulb, heating up because of his touch. His eyes were focused on the small red mark on her cheeks, which had stopped hurting since a long time ago. He lifted his fingers from her cheek, pulling away from her with a small smile.

Misty quickly rubbed her cheek with her hand, afraid Gary would notice it was getting redder. She didn't fail to notice either that her bare arm was softly touching his sleeve. For some reason, these little details jumped out at her, which was making her feel self conscious.

"I just didn't feel like traveling anymore," said Gary all of the sudden.

"Huh? Is that the only reason you became a Professor? No way, I mean, you might as well become a Gym Leader then," said Misty in a haste, trying to shake off her weird feelings at the moment.

Gary chuckled at her questions. "No, that's not the only reason. I realized that I was more interested in studying my pokemon, than to battle with them."

"Aha."

"Besides, I look good in a lab coat," he said with an arrogant smirk.

"I'll agree to that," said Misty with a laugh.

That comment made Gary even more arrogant and full of himself. He puffed out his chest and looked around the beach as if he were king. "See, even Misty thinks so. Women fall at my feet when I wear 'the' coat."

"Now don't get too cocky," said Misty with a sly smile. "Who was it again that said he has no experience? I think his name started with a G …"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, completely dismissing it. "You must have heard wrong. Must be Tracey that you're thinking of."

Misty bit her lip to prevent herself from laughing. She then dug her fingers into the sand, gathered a bit of it, then lifted it over Gary's head and scattered it in his hair.

Outraged, Gary immediately counter-attacked, throwing sand in her hair as well. The next hour was spent fooling around with Gary at the beach. She even managed to pull him into the ocean, getting both of them entirely drenched in the process. As Gary stood against a backdrop of the vast ocean, wringing out his shirt, Misty couldn't help but think that this is what she was missing from her life. She used to say that her pokemon were her life, but life proved otherwise when she realized she was bored, and sinking into a small depression as she was left all alone. What good were her pokemon if she didn't have someone to share it with? Gary smiled broadly at her, showing off his white teeth, then splashed some water at her again. Misty grinned back, splashing water at him as well.

She believed that, she had found this person again.


	5. Chapter 5

**It's Research**

**A/N:** this was originally part of chapter 4, but became too long so I split it up. But then chapter 5 ended up being long anyway, but oh well, I'm sure you'll enjoy a long chapter. Things finally start happening in this chapter! I apologize for any mistakes, it's hard to proofread such a long chapter.

**Chapter 5**

* * *

><p>Misty showed off her wrist in front of the videophone.<p>

"Fascinating," remarked Gary in a dry voice as he looked at Misty's wrist on the screen. "Are you showing off a new swimsuit or something?"

"No, look," said Misty with a pout, then wiggled her wrist to show off the little seashells that were wrapped around her wrist. "I made it out of the shells we found at the beach the other day."

"Well, like I said, _fascinating_."

Misty retrieved her wrist and sat down on the chair properly with a pout. She was in the middle of gym duty when she called Gary to share the good news, not even caring about the fact that she was wearing her usual swimming attire. She played with her home-made bracelet defensively, a bit disappointed he hadn't complimented her.

"What are you going to do with the rest of the shells?" he asked nonchalantly.

Misty's pout was replaced with a smile. "Oh, I don't know – a necklace maybe. Or just putting them on my shelf to pretty up my room. Ooh I know, should I make one for you too?"

Gary scrunched up his nose. "No thanks."

She was about to tell him off for being a jerk, when Violet burst into the room. Misty quickly stood up and used her body to shield Violet from the videophone, so that she couldn't see who she was talking with.

"On the phone, again? Really, Misty?" said Violet in disdain. "Who is it this time?"

"P-Professor Oak!" said Misty in a strangled voice, wondering if her body really was blocking everything out.

"You're calling him way too often. Tell that geezer to get a life, and _**you**_ – get a cellphone already! I want you off of this phone in five minutes." Violet then left the room, and Misty quickly sat in front of the videophone again.

"Say, did you just confuse me with my gramps?" asked Gary with a frown after having witnessed the entire conversation.

Misty felt her face heat up a bit, and she shuffled on her seat uncomfortably. "Well, you see, my sisters can be a real pain in the ass. If they knew I was talking to you every day – a boy my age – I'd never hear the end of it! They already teased me mercilessly when you picked me up the other day."

"Sooo, you pretend that I'm my grandfather. Thanks, that's a real confidence booster, just what I needed before submitting a report in my own name."

"Oh shut it, how would you like it if Tracey bugged you all day long on who you were on the phone with?"

As if on cue, Misty could spot the door behind Gary in the distance opening up, and out came Tracey.

"Talking to your girlfriend again?" called Tracey out in a loud voice.

Gary whipped his head around in response, yelling some curses off-screen at the black haired boy. After a few seconds, he turned to face the screen again, his face a little bit red. Either from embarrassment, or for raising his voice so loudly, she didn't know. Misty simply smiled that 'I told you so' smile at him, not saying a word.

"Wipe that smile off your face," he said while clicking his tongue at her.

"Smile? What smile? This," she pointed at herself, making a circular motion with her finger, "is my normal face," she said as her facetious smile grew larger.

Gary sighed while he ran his hand through his spiky hair. "You're giving me a headache, and I need to get back to work."

"Say no more, say no more. I've got a trainer waiting on me anyway."

His ears perked up at that. "Wait, did you just leave a trainer in your gym just so you could call me?"

Misty's ears turned red. "N-no! Not like that! My sister told me right before I called you that someone was here. I just didn't want to delay our call …" She fidgeted on her seat.

"Riiiight," he drawled out. "Well, I'm off. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, bye," she said in a small voice. The videophone was then finally turned off. Misty scratched her head for a bit, staring at the screen. Was it really that strange she placed a battle on hold so she could have her daily chat with Gary? Those phone calls were the one thing she looked forward to every day! It wasn't that strange … right?

"Misty, get off of the phone!" screeched Violet as she barged inside of the room again. Upon seeing Misty walking away, she simply gave a curt nod. "She's waiting for you, by the way," she said to Misty as she was passing her by.

"Yeah yeah, I'll take her on."

Misty stretched her arms for a bit, ready to take on another battle as a gym leader. She walked through the house until she reached the gym, walking out towards the pool area, looking around for the trainer that she was supposed to fight.

"Hey there Misty!" yelled out a girly voice from behind her.

Misty felt herself jump in her skin, but quickly turned around to greet this girl. Then she noticed this wasn't just any girl; this was May Maple. The girl she had met with so many years ago was now standing in front of her once more, only now a lot taller, and a lot bustier as well. She was dressed in red sporting clothes, but had gotten rid of her bandana.

"May, I haven't seen you in years," said Misty at a loss of words. All she could think about was why May was here, in her gym. She hadn't exactly been the bestest of friends with her, or even close for that matter.

"I know, right? Well, I was in the neighborhood out on some Pokemon League business, and I figured I'd drop by to come see how you're doing." The tall brunette seemed so sincere in her words, that Misty didn't have the heart to think anything bad about her. "So, how _are_ you doing?" she said, stressing the 'are'.

Misty scratched the back of her head awkwardly, not quite sure how to answer that one. "Let's go sit down, I'll get you something to drink. Is tea fine?" said Misty in a rush as she started to walk away from the pool.

May followed her with a smile. "Tea is fine."

They went back inside of her house and May seated herself at the kitchen. Misty quickly pulled on a vest since she felt a bit uncomfortable parading around in a swim suit when they weren't even going to battle each other. She prepared some tea for the both of them, then sat down in front of May.

"Well, I've been busy with the gym, I'm also picking up a lot of slack from my sisters."

"I can't believe you've stuck around for this long. When I first met you, you were already a Gym Leader. I'm pretty impressed," said May while taking a sip of her tea.

Misty didn't know whether that was a compliment or not, but decided to ask about her instead. "So how have you been doing? Still competing in contests?"

May simply laughed out loud. "Haven't you seen the news? I've been the top Coordinator in Hoenn for years! I've been trying my luck in Sinnoh, but that pesky Dawn has been holding that title for years over there as well."

"Sorry, I tend to zone out the news lately, especially when those commercials come on berating Gym Leaders for being weak. Either way, congratulations."

"Thanks! And yeah, I've seen those commercials as well. To tell the truth, that's kind of why I'm here," she said in a low voice. "Word's going around that the Pokemon League is trying to save face and is desperately trying to find a way to improve their image again. So they're enlisting the help of a lot of famous people."

"Which includes you," concluded Misty. She had never even heard of the Pokemon League doing things like that, and she was a Gym Leader for crying out loud.

"Exactly. I heard them talk about Ash Ketchum as well, but he's been unreachable since he journeyed to Unova."

Great, the topic had managed to steer towards Ash again, Misty noted dully. "Have you spoken with him lately?" she asked off handedly.

May bit her lip, trying to think. "Uhh, last time I spoke with him, was a few months ago. He was raging about how he caught this really strong pokemon. Silly really, it's like he never grew up past the age of 10."

Misty snorted in agreement, and also because she was a bit stingy at the fact that May has had more contact with him than she has. But that wasn't May's fault, it was Ash's.

"Do you still keep contact with Ash?" asked May curiously.

The redhead hid her scowling face behind her teacup, feeling the urge to rant about Ash, but deciding that small-talk was not the way to do this. "I would, except, you know how he is."

May nodded her head. "I know what you mean. I can never get a hold of that bugger, honestly. I gave up a long time ago trying to keep in contact. I mean, I've got other things to do now than to worry whether or not he's going to call."

The way May was speaking, seemed to reflect a lot of Misty's feelings for Ash as well; she wanted to continue being his best friend, but Ash made it difficult to keep in touch, and they slowly drifted apart.

"But! Who cares about him when I'm engaged to my lovely fiancé."

"Oh, you're engaged? To who?" asked Misty with interest, since she had always assumed May had a thing for Ash as well.

"You won't believe it, but he was my biggest rival back in the days! It's Drew Hayden, another top Coordinator as well. Ah, how things have turned around." May looked off in the distance in a seemingly romantic way.

"Congratulations! But, marrying your rival, huh?" asked Misty with a laugh.

"Well, they certainly keep you on your toes, right?" replied May with a giggle.

Misty was instantly reminded of Gary, and how her life seemed to be filled with a lot more colour ever since meeting up with him, despite them hating each other when they first met.

"So, are you dating anyone?"

It was as if May was able to read Misty like a book, so she clammed up and started to blush a rosy pink, thinking that it was not that way with Gary.

"Ohoho, I see that look! You totally are. Oooh, Ash is gonna be _so_ jealous."

"I'm not!" she quickly replied. "I'm not dating him – we're just friends, that's all."

May simply took another sip from her tea and looked up at Misty with all-knowing eyes. "Ah, but you immediately thought of 'him' when I asked if you're dating anyone – whoever 'him' is."

Misty didn't know how to respond to that one except blush even more.

May finally finished up the last bit of her tea and placed it down on the table. "Well Misty, it was nice catching up with you. I guess I'll see you again at Professor Oak's birthday."

"You're invited too?"

"More like, who isn't? Either way, I'll let you go back to your gym duties again. Thanks for the tea!" she yelled cheerfully, then skipped out of the room, but not before turning her head towards the redhead again with a sly smile. "Oh, and if you do start dating 'him', rub it into Ash's face, will you? I'd love to see that."

"We're not going to date!" she yelled with a fiercely red face.

And that was how her meeting with May Maple ended.

In the next few days, Misty has resumed regular gym duties, despite not many trainers showing up to challenge her. She wondered if it was because they hadn't yet started to hand out new pokedexes to young trainers – or because Gym Leaders were viewed as 'weak' lately. Thinking it was going to be another one of those days again, Misty was happy to realize there was someone at the gym's door. Dressed in her usual blue bathing suit, she happily opened it up, thinking it was going to be a trainer again.

Except she didn't expect to see Gary Oak stand in front of her with an aloof smile. She also didn't expect her reaction to be so confused that she slammed the door right back into his face again.

"Hey!" he yelled out indignantly, slamming his fist onto the door.

Misty slapped her cheeks to wake herself up, then quietly opened the door again with an apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry …" she drawled out. "You startled me!"

Gary walked inside with his arms folded over his chest. He wasn't wearing his lab coat again today, instead adorning that brown hoodie he liked to wear every once in a while.

"More like frightened," he bit out.

Misty closed the door behind him, now feeling a lot happier at seeing him drop by. "Why are you here, Gary? I thought I was gonna come over at your place next week when I was off duty."

Gary whirled around, and Misty was temporarily mesmerized at the way his brown spikes swayed as he moved. "Well you see, I missed you so much, I couldn't _bear _to be apart from you any longer," he said in a highly exaggerated voice. Then his green eyes studied her body from top to bottom. "Nice swimsuit," he said with a grin.

The tip of her ears turned red, feeling extremely self conscious all of the sudden, and she couldn't help but notice that whenever Gary was mentioned – or involved, she seemed to be blushing quite a lot. Misty was about to punch his arm for mocking her, before she remembered the car crash from a week ago and lowered her hand.

"How's your arm? Is the bruise still there?"

Gary quickly rolled up his sleeve, showing her his upper arm, which still had a bruise on it, only slightly smaller now and instead of yellow, it was a blue-ish purple. "It's getting there," he said as if it wasn't a big deal at all. It didn't exactly look healthy to her at all, but she decided to stop pressing the issue.

"So, are you going to tell me why you're here, or do I need to start guessing?"

Gary simply frowned at her. "Gee, I can't visit you for no reason?"

Misty simply continued staring at him.

"Fine, I'm here on some Pokemon League business and figured I'd drop by, since it's close anyway."

"Oh my god, is everyone dropping by for Pokemon League business these days?" ranted Misty out loud.

Gary raised his eyebrows. "Huh? Someone else came by too?" he asked. Then his expression turned considerably more cold. "It wasn't Ash, was it?"

"What? No, just an old acquaintance of mine from years ago."

He laughed in relief. "Good, the jerk didn't come by to mess you up." Misty glared at him, but he simply messed up her red hair. "Only I can do that now," he said in a soft tone and with a very charming smile. Misty batted his hands away from her hair, but wasn't exactly mad at the action, not when he was smiling like that.

"Why, is he supposed to be here? I don't get what this Pokemon League business is all about, care to fill me in on the blanks here?"

"Ehh, I don't know too much either, except they're scheming some things up there, and I'm simply just an errand boy for them now, since they want my grandfather's research for something. Tracey is here too, actually. I told him to go ahead and I'll catch up with him later." It seemed Gary didn't know much either, but it sure was a lot more than she knew.

Misty decided to push work related business aside for the moment, then happily took Gary's hand within her own. "Now that you're here, I've got something for you!" she said excitedly.

"A present? Cool," he said with a laugh. He was then dragged along the pool, into the house by Misty who kept on holding his hand. She quickly retrieved an item from her bedroom, then returned to Gary who was loitering around in the living room. Excitedly, she stretched the item in between her hands, holding it up in front of his face to give him a good look at the sea shell bracelet she made for him.

"Tada! I made one for you."

Gary's expression slowly morphed into that of horror, slowly shaking his head from left to right. "Oh come on, they match at least!" defended Misty as she showed off her own bracelet which she hadn't yet removed.

"But it's so _girly_," he complained, backing away from her. "As a manly man, I can't wear that."

Misty sneered at him with disdain. "Manly? What's so manly about you?" she said as she kept on advancing to him, determined to get him to wear the bracelet.

"Lots of things," he said while still backing off. "Like my strikingly good looks, or my beefed up muscular arms."

Misty cornered him as he stopped in his tracks because he reached the wall of the living room, and he looked at Misty with smiling eyes. Suddenly, they were interrupted when they heard of a bunch of girly voices coming down the stairs. Misty's eyes grew wide in fear; if her sisters saw Gary now, who knew what kind of teasing she had to go through! In her quick thinking, she quickly opened the door of the closet that was right next to them inside of the wall, and shoved both of them inside, quickly closing the door to hide them from their sisters.

"What are you –" said Gary and Misty quickly covered up his mouth with her hand to prevent him from talking.

"Shh, I don't want them to see you," she whispered at him.

The closet was dark and very cramped, she was literally standing on his feet to make up for lack of space, her entire body pressed up against him. She pressed her ear against the door, listening to her sisters as they made their way downstairs, chatting loudly about the newest fashion. They stood around in the living room for a while, and Misty felt herself growing more nervous at the thought of being discovered.

Then she slowly started to realize how half her naked body was pressed up against Gary, and how he hadn't said a word ever since she told him to shut up. It was dark so she couldn't see, but she was definitely aware of how close his face was to the nook of her neck, his breath slowly caressing it. Misty decided to ignore her awkward hormones, and kept a look-out for her sisters. After another minute, her sisters finally got out of the house, and Misty quickly opened the door again, almost falling out of the closet with Gary on top of her.

"Now quick, leave before they come back!" she said as she pushed his back, steering him towards the back door.

"Alright, alright," said Gary as he reluctantly agreed to leave her house. He turned around and scratched his head as they reached the back door. "Guess I'll see you next week," he said a bit unsure. Then he noticed something dangling off of his wrist when he scratched his head.

"H-how did you? When did you?" he exclaimed, finding that his wrist was now decorated with the bracelet Misty had made for him.

Misty simply winked at him and pressed a finger against her pink lips. "I'm very good with my hands," she said in a low voice, as if it was a secret.

Gary's mouth fell open in shock, and his cheeks were slowly turning red. Whatever Gary was thinking at that moment, it didn't matter, because Misty could hear her sister's voices returning to the living room, so she gave Gary a big push to his chest, making him stumble through the door.

"Go on, leave!" she hissed at him.

Gary shook his head then gave her a wide smile, turning around with his hands in his hoodie, slowly strolling away.

"I'll see you next week!" she called out at him from her house, watching his back disappear into the city.

The last thing she saw Gary do, was him pulling his right hand from his hoodie, holding it up in the air to show off his bracelet as he waved her a nonchalant goodbye. Misty couldn't help but notice how much better the bracelet looked on him, than it did on her. The redhead stayed behind with a goofy grin on her face, happy that he didn't decide to take it off of his wrist.

Then suddenly Misty was pulled away from the door by a pair of hands. She quickly confronted the person, and saw that it was Daisy.

"Where were you? I was looking for you, you know," said the eldest sister with a sigh.

Misty quickly closed the door, pretending nothing had happened, and hoped she hadn't seen her send of Gary. "Why? Is there something you want?"

"Well, you see, Lily and Violet have been complaining you're hogging the videophone too much lately."

Misty was about to protest when Daisy shoved something in her hands. "So, I'm making you carry a cellphone around for now, so you can finally realize how cool it is, to like, have a cellphone with you, so you can buy yourself one."

Misty quickly returned the phone, not wanting to have a girly, pink cellphone. "No thanks, I'm fine without one."

"No, you're taking it sis. It's way too uncool for you not to have one in the first place." Daisy thrust the phone into her hands again, forcing her to take it.

Misty dangled the pink phone in front of her face, it was decorated with a hundred little pink diamonds, reflecting diamond shapes around her face. "But it's so … _girly._ I don't think I need this." It was an ironic echo of what Gary had said just moments before about her bracelet, but she shrugged it off.

Daisy placed her hands on her hip. "Well, aren't you like, always calling with that Professor Oak? This way you can stop hogging the videophone!"

She bit her lip in response, since her sister did, mildly, have a point.

"Just try it out for a week! Then you can buy one yourself if you like it."

"Fine, I'll give it a shot."

"Oh, and before I forget Misty – don't lose it. I'll unleash my wrath on you if I find out you lost my phone."

"Don't lose phone, got it."

Daisy finally left Misty alone, and she looked at the very pink and girly phone rather unsure of what to do with it. Besides, it wasn't like she was hogging the videophone all day long! Just once a day! Her sisters were just exaggerating. Misty tried to live with having a cellphone for the remained of her gym duty, but kept forgetting she had one, so she kept leaving it behind in various places, then later on realizing she had lost it, and furiously began searching for the pink little item.

It had been a rather hectic week, and she tried to give it back to Daisy, but she refused to accept it, telling her she was still on a trial period. Misty gave up and simply shoved the cellphone in her pocket, intending not to lose it anymore. After the week had finally passed, and it was now a Tuesday, and Misty had just finished talking to Gary about her plans of staying over for two days. Which was done over the videophone, and not the cellphone, Misty noted.

Misty continued to smile for a while, still sitting in front of the video phone. After a while, Misty realized how overly happy she was being and snapped out of it. The girl went to her room to pack up a few extra clothes; she would always be too tired to return back home on the same day, so she usually slept over at Gary's place. A smile appeared on her face as she happily stuffed a shirt and some pants in her bag.

"Going to see Professor Oak again?" asked Daisy, who was standing behind her. Misty shrieked in response, not prepared her sister would be spying on her.

"Yes, yes I am," replied Misty and she quietly hummed to herself. She closed up her bag and was all set to go for tomorrow.

"You sure do look happy when you're going to see him," mused her sister. Daisy smirked at Misty as she felt her cheeks heat up. "I didn't realize you went for the older guys, Misty."

Misty glared hard at her sister; she didn't have a thing for Professor Oak! "T-that's not it! I just like going over there, since it's so boring over here!" she said, hoping Daisy wouldn't know it was precisely because of a _certain _Professor Oak that she kept returning.

"Whatever, I'm glad to see you finally got over that loser Ash."

The redhead casted her eyes downwards. "I'm not into Professor Oak!" she yelled with flaming red cheeks. "And I got over Ash years ago! Now stop teasing me!" Misty then pushed her sister out of her room so she could get some alone time.

She lay down on her bed, snuggling her Horsea shaped pillow close to her. Thoughts of Gary drifted into her mind and left her rather confused. Was her sister right? Did she like Gary? It was true she got excited to visit him again, but she figured it was because there was always something interesting going on at his place than at hers. Misty wasn't going to lie though; Gary was a handsome young man, and she felt a bit attracted to him. Not only that, his personality changed for the better than when they were only kids. He used to hurl insults back and forth with her – well, she was only sticking up for Ash at the time. Now, years later, he would jokingly insult her and she would joke back. He was still rather arrogant, as she had come to notice, but his arrogance made him look so confident and attractive. Misty blushed a bit into her pillow when she realized how much she was thinking about Gary. She had to stop thinking about such things; Gary was a good friend of hers. Attractive, but still a good friend.

The next day, Misty left the gym and was on her way to Pallet Town. Halfway through the new road, she noticed a person sitting against a tree on the side of the road. Brown spikes were sticking out of the person's head, and Misty smiled when she recognized him.

"Hey Gary!" she greeted him and walked a bit faster to catch up to him.

The young man finally looked up and gave her a smile. "Hey," he said nonchalantly and got up from his sitting position.

"Why are you here?" she asked as she finally caught up to him.

"Figured it's best to meet you halfway. There's some wild pokemon on the loose and it could be dangerous."

Misty raised her eyebrows. Wild pokemon in Pallet Town? How dangerous could it be? "So? It's not like I can't take care of myself. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a _Gym Leader_ – it's kind of a big deal."

They started to walk together, very slowly. Gary stuffed his hands in his lab coat, which was looking good on him today again. It was kind of irritating that she would notice this every time.

"So you're saying you're annoyed I came to pick you up?" he asked slyly with a smirk on his face.

"Exactly!"

"So a friend can't worry over another friend's safety?"

Misty linked her arm with his and pulled him close to her with a big smile. "Yeah they can," she said with a small giggle. "But don't forget; I'm Misty, and I'll be alright when you leave me alone."

"Pretty confident about yourself, aren't you?" said Gary with a chuckle.

"Says the over confident Pokemon Professor," she retorted.

Gary flicked his hair out of his face and stuck his nose up in the air. "That's because I have every right to be overconfident." His green eyes then looked down at her. "You on the other hand …"

Misty slapped his arm playfully and gave a loud huff, then she pulled his arm that was linked with her for good measure.

"You should see me during a pokemon battle, you'll eat your words."

"I think I would like that," he mused.

Misty started thinking; had Gary ever seen her fight in a pokemon battle? She couldn't remember; and he probably couldn't either.

"Then why don't you drop by the gym next week?" she asked innocently.

"If I can find some time off, sure, I'll drop by," he said with a dashing smile.

"Time? You got lots! Don't lie to me; I know what your typical work day looks like."

Gary shook his head. "No, that's not it, next week I have to publish my research to other Pokemon Researchers. They'll examine the data, and will try their best to refute what I have found – it's kind of nerve wrecking. Plus the Pokemon League is still using me as their errand boy."

Misty cocked her head to the side; not knowing the details of what a Pokemon Researcher really does was so troubling. "Is it the research you did when I first came here?"

The brunette nodded.

"Great! Tell me how it went afterwards then!" she said happily.

"You'll be the first one to know," he said with a small laugh.

Then Misty pulled on his arm with her own, causing his hand to be lifted out of his pocket. When she saw the bracelet still attached to his wrist, she broke out into a huge smile.

"I see you didn't take off the bracelet."

Gary took a quick peek at his wrist, then shrugged it off. "I hadn't even noticed I was still wearing it."

Misty allowed Gary to put his hand back into his coat, but happily hung onto his arm still. "Thanks," she said with a shy smile.

"I didn't appreciate being shoved in a closet though."

Misty smirked at him. "Oh well, what's done is done. And look, now we match!" she then called out loudly. She stuck out her own right arm in front of her, admiring her bracelet. Gary then chuckled softly, which made Misty cock her head sideways. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking what kind of face Ash would make once he realizes we've got matching bracelets."

Misty started to laugh hysterically. "I'd pay money to see that!"

"Just imagine how far his jaw would drop when he realizes that one of his best friends, and his rival, have been frolicking together behind his back."

Misty laughed even harder, finally letting go of his arm as she held her stomach to control her fit. "Frolicking! I never expected that word to ever come out of your mouth!"

Gary scratched the tip of his nose and looked away, feeling embarrassed. "Yeah well, what do you call _this?_" he asked in a more serious tone.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, and her laughter finally subsided. Just then, she looked at Gary, who was staring at her with intense green eyes, green eyes that were filled with expectations. Suddenly, May Maple popped up in her head, saying how things sure have turned around, and how she was engaged with her former rival. Gary had been her former rival, yet now here she was, having a fit of laughter and sharing matching bracelets as if they were the best of buds.

Misty halted in her tracks, causing Gary to stop as well, though he still held her gaze. When had things changed so much? When had it become so normal to her that Gary seemed like he'd been friends with her for her entire life? Just in these past few weeks she had accumulated many different memories with Gary, and they were more note-worthy than anything she had done in the past few years by herself, so what exactly would she call this?

Gary grew more wary as the silence stretched on while Misty was deep in though. She then grinned at him, her blue eyes sparkling like the ocean. "This is an important friendship, of course."

For a split second she saw his eyes widen in genuine shock, but he quickly covered it up by hiding his face with his hand, which also meant that his bracelet was in plain view. Just seeing a token of their friendship on his wrist stirred up feelings inside of Misty she never knew she had.

"Yeah," he said in quietly. "Same here."

Misty held in her laughter at seeing Gary act so cute around her, because she didn't want to make him feel even more embarrassed. No, she was already extremely happy at seeing him admit it as well; this bond was important. Misty happily linked arms with him again, cheerfully walking towards Pallet Town.

Their walk to Pallet Town was filled with small talk, laughter and some jokes here and there. When they arrived at the lab, everything fell into their usual routine. Gary would sit behind his computer, doing some science stuff, while Misty would sit on his desk playing with crossword puzzles. It was strangely familiar and … nice. While Misty had complained about her boring life before, she had no problems sitting at Gary's desk doing the same thing for hours – and not get bored.

The first day had already passed by in a blink of an eye, and Misty really couldn't complain, because she enjoyed being in Gary's company, maybe even more than she should. Her eyes wandered over to Gary, who was staring intently at the screen. His strong and sharp jaw line really framed his face, making him look so much more mature than when he was only a kid. Curious green eyes suddenly flickered over to her and he rose a darkly coloured eyebrow.

"What, can't figure out another answer?" Gary continued to type on his keyboard, half paying attention to what she was doing. She noticed how the sea shell bracelet rattled with noise every time he started to type, but it didn't seem to bother him.

A bit embarrassed he caught her staring at him, Misty quickly said; "Yeah, uhh 9 letters for a dancing pokemon," she said after quickly glancing at her crossword puzzle.

"Easy, Bellossom, they have the most beautiful dances."

"Really? I wouldn't know, I don't care much for grass pokemon."

Gary then finally tore his eyes away from the screen and gave her a slight smile. "Do you want to see?"

Misty scratched her head with her pencil. "See what?"

"The dancing Bellossoms."

"What, can we catch a ticket to their show?" she joked.

Gary simply chuckled at her, then returned back to his work. "There's an area around Pallet Town where the Bellossoms gather every once in a while to dance underneath the moonlight. Which is strange, since they're sun type pokemon."

Feeling a bit more interested in the topic now, Misty showed curiosity. "And when is 'once in a while'?"

"I haven't quite figured that one out yet. I've only seen them twice, and both times were during the full moon. Today is going to be a full moon actually."

Camping out with Gary Oak underneath the moonlight? That seemed oddly romantic. "Alright, let's do that then! Now you made me want to see them dance."

"They don't start dancing until pretty late, are you sure you want to stay until then? I don't want you walking home in the dark."

Misty gave him a grin and pointed her pencil at him. "No worries, I'm used to walking alone at night. Besides, with the new road they opened up, it only took an hour and a half to get here!"

"Your choice. We can leave later today then. You should make some sandwiches to bring with us, it might take long."

"Riiight, I forgot you only eat Mac & Cheese and need me to make you food."

He simply grinned at her. "Got a problem with that?"

Misty snickered, then resumed her crossword puzzle, wondering what kind of dance the Bellossoms would perform, and if they could even catch them dancing this evening. She sure hoped they would. Tracey suddenly entered the room and Misty looked up at him.

"Oh hey Misty, I didn't know you were here," he said and gave her a small wave. She hadn't seen him yesterday, Gary had said he was an another Pokemon League errand. Misty waved back at him.

"You should watch out you know, there's some dangerous pokemon on the loose on your way to Cerulean City."

Misty rolled her eyes and tapped her pencil on Gary's head, who merely glared at her antics. "Don't worry, this guy over here already warned me. But I'm really curious now; what kind of pokemon is on the loose? You all seem to know this for some reason."

Tracey grinned uneasy and shuffled on his spot, contemplating whether or not to tell her something. Gary then finally lifted up his head to face Misty.

"It's a bunch of Rhyhorns. Some trainer caught a lot of them, and they were out of our control and managed to escape."

"Oh no, those poor Rhyhorns! Why are you not trying to get them back? The trainer must be sad they ran away!"

"Don't worry Misty," piped in Tracey. "Rhyhorns are abrasive by nature, but they usually come around pretty quickly and return soon afterwards."

Misty then looked over to Gary, who frowned as their eyes met. "Aha, I see, so Gary really was worried about me, huh?" she asked, straight to his face.

As expected, he turned all embarrassed and shy, avoiding eye contact with you. "I told you I was," he said sternly and crossed his arms.

Misty reached over to him messed up his hair with her hand. "Thanks, Gary!"

"Hey hey, I was worried too, you know!" said Tracey a bit offended.

"Yeah but, you don't get all embarrassed if I tease you about it," said Misty innocently.

"I do not!" yelled Gary, slapping away Misty's hands from his hair, then furiously went back to typing on his computer, ignoring Misty's creepy smile.

It was then that Tracey noticed something. "Hey, are you both wearing a bracelet made out of shells?"

Gary quickly pulled the sleeve of his lab coat over his wrist, hiding the bracelet. "No," he lied.

"Yup!" yelled out Misty cheerfully, showing off her bracelet to Tracey who laughed in response.

"Oh you guys, now you're even wearing matching jewelry? What are you, dating each other or something?"

Misty blushed, and Gary whipped his head around to yell a string of curses at Tracey, who finally shut up and left them alone. Misty poked Gary's ribs with her feet, and gave him a smile.

"See, it's exactly because of situations like this that I had to shove you in the closet."

Gary scoffed at her. "Yeah well, maybe you shouldn't have made those stupid bracelets."

The redhead glared at him, and poked him extra hard in the side. Gary gave a disgruntled yelp, but said nothing afterwards. For the rest of the day, Misty was confined to working on her puzzle, while waiting impatiently for Gary to finish working so that they could see the Bellossom dance.

"Let's go over to my house first," said Gary once he was finally finished with work. Misty stretched her body, having sat in the same place for a while, then followed Gary as he went to his house.

"Can you make some sandwiches? You know, so we have something to eat while we're there. I'm gonna go get a blanket," he said, then he left to go upstairs.

This really did started to sound like a romantic picnic underneath the moonlight. Misty shook her slightly reddish head, then opened his fridge (she had already stocked it up the previous day) and prepared a few quick to make sandwiches. After five minutes, she heard Gary come downstairs, just in time since she finished their food for the day. Misty turned around, expecting to see Gary in his white lab coat, but found that he had finally taken it off.

"What?" he asked with a frown.

"Nothing, didn't expect you to take off your lab coat," she said, noting he was wearing that brown hoodie again.

"You know, I still wear regular clothes. I'm not a Professor 100% of the time."

"Of course not, but I'm still used to it you know." Plus he always looked damn fine in his lab coat, so Misty had gotten secretly attached to it.

Gary then snatched the sandwiches she put into a plastic bag, and stuffed it into his backpack. "Okay, you ready to go?"

Misty simply nodded with a big smile; they were going to see a Bellossom dance underneath the moonlight! As they stepped outside, something inside of Misty's pocket began to vibrate and make noise.

"_What is that?_" Gary spat out at the annoying ringtone.

Misty had totally forgotten she had her sister's phone with her, and quickly picked it up. "Uhh, hello? This is Misty. Yes the youngest sister. I'm sorry, Daisy borrowed me her phone for a few days so she can't talk to you her right now. Try calling one of my other sisters, I'm sure she's with them. Okay, bye." Misty hung up on whoever Candice was, and stared hard at the phone.

"Hey, do you mind keeping this with you? My sister gave me her cellphone in the hopes I'd buy my own, but I had totally forgotten it was even in my pocket. If I lose it in the forest, my sister will give me hell! So can you hold onto it for me?"

Misty handed him over the pink cellphone, which Gary stuffed inside of his pocket. "Fine, just remember to get it back, because I sure won't."

"It's alright, I don't think I'll forget. Hopefully. Besides, it's a pink phone with the ringtone of _I'm a Barbie girl_, who could possibly forget it?"

Gary chuckled and off they went into the forest. They trekked through the dense forest of Pallet Town for a while, and Misty was starting to believe Gary was lost, but when she saw that he was using that GPS thingy, she felt a bit more relieved. It was already dark outside, and they were using flashlights to aid them in finding the spot the dance was going to be at.

"Is it still far?" she asked after they had been walking for half an hour.

"Actually, we're there," said Gary, pushing away a branch that was in his way. Through the bushes they just came from, there was a clearing right ahead of them.

Misty walked out into the clearing; there was a round spot of grass in between high walls of rocks, with a few trees surrounding the circle. It seemed like the spot had been used many times, apparent by the flat grass in the middle of the area.

"That's where they dance," said Gary, coming up from behind her.

"I hope they come tonight!" she said excitedly.

Gary then retreated from the clearing, now standing behind the bushes again, and started to unpack, spreading out the blanket neatly on the grass. He then put the backpack on top of it, containing the sandwiches she prepared beforehand. He sat down and beckoned Misty to do the same thing. The brunette laid his back against the blanket, propping his arms behind his head and stared at the sky.

"So," said Misty, a bit unsure of what to do now. "We just wait until they show up?"

Gary simply nodded.

"Bah! That's so boring," she sighed and shook her head.

"If you look up, you might notice it's not so boring after all," he said softly.

Misty raised her eyebrows, but then lifted up her head as well to stare at the sky. She gasped out loud when she saw the long string of star clusters forming together as bright lights in the night sky – also known as the Milky Way. It showed an abundance of different colours, but it was mostly a deep pink and purple, it was simply _breathtaking_. She had never managed to see the Milky Way in Cerulean City, because the lights of the city made it too bright to see any stars in the sky. Even when she was on her journey with Ash and Brock, they never camped out in the open to see the stars, as the trees usually blocked the view. But this, this was simply amazing. The stars twinkled and sparkled, it was like a veil of diamonds. She lay down next to Gary, continuing to stare at the sky.

"It's gorgeous," she said in an exhaled breath.

"That's the beauty of living in Pallet Town," noted Gary. "It's such a small town, you can easily catch all the stars at night over here."

"I'm jealous," she said with a small giggle. "Hogging this gorgeous scenery all for yourself."

He shifted his head to look at her with a cocky grin. "I'm sharing it now, am I not?"

Misty simply returned his cocky grin, then stared at the sky once more. "Do you think they'll come?"

"Beats me, I hope they do."

"Yeah, I hope they do too."

They laid together silently, gazing at the stars. Misty then broke her gaze and her eyes turned over to Gary; who was immersed in stargazing. The slight glow of the moonlight was caressing his face, giving him an angel like appearance. That guy really could look good in anything, Misty noted grudgingly. At least he didn't have that awful personality anymore. Now she enjoyed spending time with him, but she wasn't quite sure if it was on a friendly level anymore. Lately she had been far too excited to see him again, and far too happy being with him. She wondered if her sisters were right; did she like Gary? Did she have a silly crush on him? The girl sighed; she hoped not. Her last crush didn't exactly end well.

Suddenly Gary sat up straight, then crawled towards the bushes in front of them. He turned his head to beckon her over. Misty quickly got up, being as quiet as she could, and sat down next to Gary.

"I think we got lucky," he whispered excitedly.

Misty peered through the bushes, looking at the open circle for any signs of Bellossoms appearing. A few seconds later, the bouncing leaves of the Bellossom appeared. With their hula like appearance, they gracefully glided across the area. There were about fifteen of them! They twirled around in synchronization as they slowly walked into their position, each forming a closed circle. The Bellossoms made soft cooing sounds as they swung their leafy skirts from left to right. It was a sight to behold; they were finally in position, and started to twirl around again, but this time their bodies started to glow a light yellow. Misty gasped in surprise as she saw all the Bellossoms lit up like a Christmas bulb, and with their twirling it was giving it the appearance of a soft, moving glow.

She looked over at Gary with a smile, who grinned and winked at her. Her eyes returned back to the show, with the Bellossoms now each having a partner as they performed complicated spinning moves, all the while glowing a light yellow. The formations they were making started to look an awful lot like a flower, a glowing flower. Misty couldn't help but smile at this in awe; it was so beautiful – as beautiful as the Milky Way! Unconsciously, Misty placed her hand on top of Gary's hand, which was resting on the dirt next to her. She gave it a slight squeeze, while looking at the Bellossoms excitedly. Gary simply returned the affection and squeezed back.

The Bellossoms moved ever so gracefully across the area, adding more and more complicated moves, and chanting softly amongst themselves. Then all of the sudden, they stopped dancing, it was dead silent. They all looked up at the moon and began to shine even brighter, as if the Christmas blub was overpowered. Soon they began to float a bit upwards and white sparkles started to emit from them, a sight Misty had never seen. The sparkles made an eerie sounding noise, that was similar to a woman's high pitched voice. Misty squeezed Gary's hand even tighter, wondering what the Bellossoms were going to now. The noise turned louder, and the Bellossoms floated even higher, until they sparked with such a bright light, Misty was temporarily blinded. The noise died down immediately and the Bellossoms quietly lowered themselves.

"Did they finish?" she whispered to Gary and finally let go of his hand.

The Bellossoms answered for her as they started to glide away from the area.

"They finished recharging from the moonlight," said Gary in his normal voice, since the Bellossoms weren't around anymore. "Though why, it's a mystery."

Misty smiled at the empty area. "It sure was beautiful though."

"Wasn't it?" said Gary and he flashed his bright smile at her. He seemed really excited for a reason. "I've only seen them twice before, but it still amazes me every time I do see it." He looked at her with warm eyes. "I'm glad I could share it with you."

Misty felt her heart temporarily leap into her throat, and all she could do was give him an awkward happy smile in return. For their remaining time, they ate their sandwiches and did some more stargazing, until Gary looked at his watch.

"Hey, it's getting pretty late already, it's almost 10 PM, we should be heading back now."

Misty agreed; she was getting tired already and still had a long way to walk back home. They managed to find their way out of the forest pretty easily, all with the help of Gary's handy-dandy GPS.

"Well then, guess I should be going," said Misty, ready to take her leave after she had gathered up her stuff once they were back inside of his house.

Gary leaned against the door frame, acting rather nonchalant for some reason. Misty still wasn't really used to seeing him wear those normal looking clothes.

"Don't trip on your way over there."

Misty then whipped out her flashlight and shone it into his eyes. He quickly shielded it with his hands. "Turn that off, will you."

"What, I'm just showing you I'm prepared for the awfully long and dark journey," she said in a monotone voice.

Gary huffed out loud. "I know that. That's why I want you to be careful. When my car is fixed up, I'll bring you back myself."

Misty felt her stomach turn into twists and knots and she smiled weakly at him. "But for now, I'll have to use my own two feet to get there. So I guess I'll see you when I get home."

Gary nodded. "Yeah."

Misty then finally started to walk away from him and waved him goodbye, walking the long road back home. She could feel Gary's gaze linger on her until she was finally out of view. For some reason it gave her shivers, though that could also be due to the cold night and she was wearing a flimsy jacket. She put her hands inside of her pockets for warmth. Then something ticked inside of her mind; wasn't she forgetting something? Something that was supposed to be in her pocket? Misty frantically scouted her pockets with her hands, but there was nothing inside of them.

_Crap, I forgot I gave Gary the phone!_ Misty turned on her heel, feeling a bit lucky she hadn't realized this half-way through, since she had only been walking for several minutes. She could get the phone quickly, then still be back home on time.

The prospect of seeing Gary again because of this excuse made her lips turn into a smile that she was fighting to keep down, because she looked like an idiot for doing it. Seeing his house in sight again, Misty turned off her flashlight and slowed down her pace. She saw the front door open, and Gary walked outside, putting on his hoodie to cover his face, then he sauntered away on the road.

Misty frowned, for some reason she hadn't called out to him yet, because he was acting so suspicious. He wasn't walking towards the lab, that was the other direction. Neither was he walking towards her, since he was going left of her. Where could he be going this late? Especially when she couldn't even recognize him from behind with that hoodie covering everything. Curious to what he was up to, Misty decided to follow him that night.

Misty flattened her back against the wall after following him for several minutes through the town already, and for once in her life, was a little grateful her breasts weren't all that big, so that he couldn't spot her when he whirled around suspiciously. Why he was being so sneaky, and so suspicious, Misty had to find out. Gary then tightened his hoodie, making him look even more suspicious when his face was covered in a shadow.

A few minutes later and Gary had arrived at a large and grey complex, which was almost at the edge of Pallet Town. The brunette came at a halt near a door, where a big fat guy was standing guard. Misty cringed inwardly; it was a bodyguard. What kind of business did Gary have here? She saw him flash something to the guard, a card, or a secret password – who knew, and the guard knocked on the door three times. After a few seconds, the door opened and Gary casually walked in with his hands in his pockets. The door closed behind him immediately.

If that wasn't something suspicious, then she didn't know what was. Misty had to find out what he was doing here, but the problem was getting past that guard. Gary obviously had to prove he had permission to be there, Misty wasn't _that_ stupid to figure it out, and without whatever Gary had, she couldn't get in without it. With one nasty look at the guard, she pushed herself away from the wall and decided to walk around the building. It was a large complex, build entirely out of concrete, hidden away by all the other large buildings around it. A secluded and dark place that gave Misty the shivers; why would Gary even want to come over here? It was so dreadful and devoid of any colour.

Nevertheless, Misty set out to find a way to get inside the building. Luckily there was only one guard around the complex, and she didn't see any cameras around either. Even Team Rocket could break into this thing, it didn't even require any brains. Behind the building was the service entrance, and what do you know – one of the windows was wide open! They weren't even trying to keep up security, she'd bet her money on the fact that the guard outside the door was only for show. The window was a few feet higher than herself, so she'd need something to stand on. Looking around and she quickly spotted a few crates, perfect to stack and stand on. She dirtied her hands getting them in place, and climbed on top of it, her fingers reaching the edge of the window.

A sense of adventure she hadn't felt in such a long time overwhelmed her. It reminded her of all the times she had to break out one of Team Rocket's traps, or put on a disguise and sneak past them. Good times.

A pair of voices inside alerted the redhead and she immediately bent down to her knees, making sure no one could see her out of the window. There were two guys, chatting about how their boss didn't pay them enough, and it seemed they were taking a break from work to smoke – no wonder the window was open. Misty then widened her eyes; that would mean they'd close the window once they were done. To prevent that from happening, she quietly took off one of her shoelaces, then slid up the wall, making sure they wouldn't notice her, and quickly stuffed her shoelace inside of the lock mechanism. Once she got it in there firmly, she made herself tiny once more to avoid being spotted, and waited for the guys to finish their cigarettes.

After a minute or two, she heard them talking about getting back to work. Her heart started to thump in her throat, hoping that her plan would work and the window wouldn't lock. One of the guys walked over to the window, Misty closed her eyes as if this would somehow make herself invisible, and quickly closed it. She waited another minute until she didn't hear anything coming from the room anymore, and dared to crawl up and peer through the window.

It seemed to be a storage area of some sort, and there was no one there. Misty's eyes then studied the lock of the window, and saw that her trick had worked; the lock couldn't close all the way because her shoelaces were in the way, so the window could easily be opened. With a smug smirk on her face, Misty pulled her shoelace out, which simultaneously also pulled the window open. She quickly put it back on her sneakers, and climbed inside, making sure to keep the window open with a random object she grabbed from one of the racks.

"Hah, beware Gary Oak, Misty Waterflower is a fucking ninja," she whispered quietly to herself, standing triumphantly in the middle of the room.

And then she was off to find wherever Gary was. The hallways were all boringly concrete, and they all looked the same, so Misty quickly lost her way and went around in circles a bunch of times. Luckily, there was no one to be found in the hallways, though she was on high alert in case she'd bump into anyone. Seconds turned into minutes, she still hadn't found Gary, or even another person.

Finally she arrived at a hallway where she could hear voices from. She scanned the hallway and saw two doors on one side, so she quickly went to inspect it. The closer she came to the doors, the louder the voices became, until it turned into a huge crowd cheering and yelling. Misty vaguely wondered if this was some sort of underground boxing clubs or something with the way she heard the crowd yelling obscene words.

Misty was about to put a hand on the doorknob, when it swung open itself, almost hitting her in the face. She stumbled back and flattened herself against the wall, almost paralyzed with fear that she'd been found out.

"Okay Peter, it's almost time for your turn," said a very deep voice, which was slowly moving away from her.

Misty dared to look to her side, and was relieved to find out they hadn't even seen her, and had walked the opposite direction of the hallway. It took her a second to realize Gary was walking in front of her along with another one of those fat guards. She almost called out to him if she hadn't covered her mouth with her hands. _Phew, that was a close one. I gotta follow Gary now! Wait, didn't that fat guy just call him Peter?_

The redhead went into pursuit, and made sure to stay behind far enough that they wouldn't hear her, or accidentally see her if they turned around. She was led through a maze of hallways until the two stopped at a room. The guard pushed Gary inside the room, throwing the door closed behind him, then sauntered off in the opposite way. Finally! He was alone, she could talk to him now, and demand to know what the hell he was doing in such a place. Misty quickly ran over to the door and opened it up.

She smiled broadly, wanting to surprise him. "Hi Gar-"

Her surprise was turned into a strangled cry for help when she was thrown onto the ground, and another heavy body was forced on top of her.

"What the – Misty!" yelled out Gary. He lifted himself up from Misty and roughly pulled her up so she could stand. "I knew there was someone following me, but _what. The. Fuck_."

Misty looked at him sheepishly. "Uhh, surprise! I forgot my phone at your place, and then I saw you all sneaky-like exit your house."

Gary quickly closed the door behind him, and turned to look at her with the most flabbergasted face she'd ever seen on him. It was safe to say he had never expected her to follow him. This made her smile a little to see how shocked he was at this.

"How'd you even get in this place? You're not supposed to be in here!" he said in a bewildered voice. On one hand, she could hear his concern and fear of her being caught, and on the other hand, she could hear how he was very impressed she had managed to not get caught.

She winked bashfully. "I've got my ways." Then she finally took a moment to herself to observe the room. It was a small seating area, with a huge window on one side of the room. Misty quickly walked over towards it, ignoring Gary's questions. What she saw through the window, was a huge pokemon battlefield, and there were two guys fighting it out. All around them was a crowd, cheering for them, and yelling obnoxiously loud as the two pokemon battled against each other. One of the pokemon gave a finishing blow to the other, and the crowd erupted into screams and curses.

Misty pulled herself back from the window and stared at Gary, finally having it figured out. "You participate in illegal pokemon battles, don't you?"

"Misty, you came at the wrong time and place to lecture me about something like this. For now, I want you to hide yourself behind that couch until I come back for you so I can get you the fuck out of here."

She could hear the panic in his voice, and she was loving the way she felt more in control than him. "But why? Last I heard, you were up next, I gotta see that, no?"

Before Gary could even answer, a small intercom in the corner of the room turned on. "Peter, you're up, get ready."

"Who's Peter?" she asked innocently, unable to keep the smirk from spreading on her face.

"Fuck!" he cursed loudly, almost ready to start pulling his hair. He then glared at her. "You, _don't move_. Don't get out of this room, if anyone comes, _hide_, and if anyone catches you, _don't say a thing_ – or I'll personally hunt you down and strangle you to death." Misty vaguely noted this was the second threat she had gotten that day.

"Oh but Peter, don't you have to worry about your own match at the moment?" she asked in a coy voice.

"Argh!" he cried out, then shoved her onto the couch, and left the room through a different door than she came from.

Misty simply lay comfortably on the couch with a huge smirk on her face. That Gary Oak, he had a secret – a weakness, and she knew all about it. Yup, life couldn't get any better than this. She quickly got up and took a seat near the window so she could look out at the battle arena.

Even though Misty was a gym leader, and had been a fairly goody-two-shoes when she was still traveling with Ash and Brock, she wasn't about to tattle tale on Gary for doing something like this. She figured they existed, underground pokemon battles where people bet on battles for money that is, though she never saw one for real, until today. As long as the pokemon were treated alright, she wouldn't say a word to anyone else. Well, that all depended on Gary's behavior once he'd finish the battle and come to get her. If he was going to continue to act like an asshole, she might slip a few words to Tracey and Professor Oak. If he was going to accept the fact Misty knew about his 'late-night visits to underground pokemon battles', and would act civilized, then sure, she could keep it a secret. Besides, friends keep secrets, right?

The voice of the announcer disturbed her thoughts, and she prepped herself up so she could see Gary walk onto the field. Underneath the spotlights, combined with his hoodie that covered his trademark hair as well as half of his face, it really did seem like that was another person walking over there. He had his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, looking all gloomy and mysterious. It was then that Misty realized her phone was in Gary's pocket. She remembered it now; she didn't leave it at his home, she asked him to carry it for her so she wouldn't lose it! She'd have to get it back from him once he finished up.

"Next up, Peter versus The Rock! A one-on-one battle that you've all been waiting for! With the mysterious trainer Peter, who never utters a word, and The Rock whose name fits his fighting style!" yelled the announcer.

Misty had to snicker at the name 'Peter'. Sure, Gary could look like a Peter, maybe, if she squinted her eyes and cocked her head sideways, then _maybe _his name would fit him.

"Trainers, take out your pokemon!"

Gary retrieved one hand out of his pocket and lazily threw it on the ground, out came his trusty Umbreon. The pokemon landed on all fours and stuck his nose up high in the air.

The other trainer called out his pokemon as well, which was a very large Steelix. That didn't look very good for Gary, since Umbreon was at a disadvantage with his dark-type against Steelix, a steel-type. All of the sudden, she was very interested in the match. Last time she saw Gary fight, was when she was like what, 10 years old? Surely he had improved during those 9 long years, right? Misty sat on the edge of the seat, almost pressing her nose up against the glass so she could see everything clearly.

"And let the games begin!"

The Rock then stuck out his arm, pointing a finger at Steelix. "Steelix, use iron tail and destroy that pathetic excuse for a pokemon!" The crowd roared in agreement.

Misty's eyes were glued on Gary; what was he going to do? What kind of attack, or defend technique did he have in mind? Before she could even register Gary had spoken, Umbreon evaded the charging Steelix, and immediately did a counter-attack by jumping high in the air and landing on the Steelix's back. The little pokemon than used a faint attack on the balls of steel, causing it to stumble towards the ground. Umbreon safely hopped off and landed gracefully on the ground. Misty was, safe to say, impressed.

"Steelix, rock thomb!"

Again, Misty couldn't catch what Gary was saying before Umbreon sped off to evade the rocks being thrown at him. As a huge boulder was thrown his way, Umbreon conjured up a shield, to reflect the boulder away and it didn't do any damage to him at all. The Rock started to get angry he couldn't land any hits on Umbreon, cursing left and right and stomping his foot on the ground like a real kid he was. Before he could even yell out his next attack, Umbreon charged right into Steelix, dealing another faint attack, and sending the pokemon flying across the arena, taking massive damage.

Misty had no idea how Gary was doing this, she couldn't hear him say anything at all. Maybe he was just talking really quietly, and she couldn't hear him through the cheering crowd?

Umbreon then suddenly stopped in the middle of the field, shooting back glances at its trainer, Gary, who was rooted to the ground and not moving an inch, waiting for him to give him commands. The crowd suddenly stopped cheering, curious what was going on. When most of them shut up, they could hear the very loud and distinguishable …

_I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world. Life in plastic, it's fantastic!_

It was coming from Gary's pocket. Since Gary probably forgot her sister's phone was in his pocket, he couldn't comprehend what was actually going on, so he stood there in silence while the ringtone continued on. Misty started to sputter some random words, but eventually decided on laughing as loud as she could, rolling off of the chair and slamming her first against the floor, because it was just so damn funny! The timing had been impeccable!

Then Gary finally made a move, he took the phone out of his pocket and flipped the phone open.

"Call me again, and I'll kill you." That was the first time she heard his voice throughout the entire match, and it was totally devoid of any emotion. He was serious. He _was _going to kill whoever was going to call him again – if he wasn't planning on killing them already.

"Well, there you have it folks! The mysterious Peter has finally talked! And is it just me, or did he become even more mysterious! Anyways, let's get back to the match!" yelled out the announcer.

The Rock who had been as dumbfounded as Gary, finally shook himself out of this state, and ordered Steelix to attack Umbreon. Gary was in the middle of contemplating throwing the phone against the ground and smashing it to pieces, or putting it back in his pocket. Whatever he was doing, he wasn't paying any attention to his match, and Umbreon who didn't know what to do, got hit and was thrown across the field, almost landing near Gary's feet.

Gary bent down to inspect his Umbreon, and the pokemon quickly got back on its feet. It seemed shit just got serious, because Gary finally got into a battle position, and Umbreon ran off towards Steelix. What happened after that, Misty didn't quite know, because there was too much dirt being thrown around to see, but when the smoke finally cleared up, Umbreon was standing on top of an unconscious Steelix, scratching its ears.

The crowd went mad, roaring even louder, some even calling Gary 'Barbie Girl'. The announcer exclaimed Gary had won the battle. Gary slickly called Umbreon back to its pokeball, and sauntered off of the field. Misty found herself cheering with the crowd, happy Gary had won, her mood had been infected by everyone in the crowd cheering for him.

Misty then sat back and stared at the door. He was going to come back for her, and Misty didn't know whether he was going to murder her or not – but that ringtone fiasco was _priceless_, she wouldn't give up that memory even if he gave her a million dollars! The door slowly opened, and Misty got up from the seat, smiling broadly.

She greeted him with a huge smile on her face, unable to contain her excitement at seeing him battle like that, and win in the most extraordinary way – and still thinking about the ringtone.

"Wipe that stupid look off your face, you look downright disgusting."

Her smile immediately vanished. "Jerkface," she uttered darkly. Then she was reminded of his phonecall again, and burst out in laughter. "This, has got to be my most favourite Gary moment … ever!" she yelled out while taking a huge breath to continue laughing at him.

Gary whirled around angrily, then took out her phone and threw it at her. "Hey! That's my sisters phone!" she complained as she managed to catch it before it fell on the ground.

"Your sisters phone made me the laughing stock of the entire arena," he said with a growl, menacing over her body.

"I know, isn't it funny?" she said delightfully.

"**No**, no it's not!"

Misty then leaped forwards to him, and yanked his hoodie off, so that she could finally see his embarrassed face. Gary looking embarrassed, a sight to behold, it was extremely endearing and cute – Misty couldn't help but make fun of him even more.

"Congratulations on your win!" she said happily, grabbing his hand and shaking it.

"What is this? The calm before the storm? What the hell are you even doing here, Misty?" he sneered at her.

She dropped his hand, her face now serious. "Well, if you'll keep up that kind of attitude, I might let a few things slip out of my mouth next time I'm over at the lab. Oops, I _totally_ didn't mean to tell you that Gary blows his money on illegal pokemon battles – and actually participates in them as well. Totally didn't mean to, sorry Tracey, sorry Professor Oak."

Gary finally pushed her against a wall, roughly grabbing her wrists and pinning her down so she couldn't escape. It didn't faze her one bit, not after he had gotten a phonecall with a 'I'm a Barbie-girl' ringtone, it was impossible to take him seriously at the moment.

"You are infuriating, do you know that? Why the fuck did you decide to follow me? Did it ever occur to you that there might be a damn good reason I'm sneaking around? But _noooo_, you just had to pry your nose into someone else's business and fuck 'em over, _fuck_ _'em over good_."

"I didn't realize I was _fucking_ you over, Gary," she spat out at him, then gave him the meanest glare she could muster. He was really getting on her nerves at the moment, if he'd say just a few more insults in such a demeaning way, she was going to knee him in the groin and leave without him. "But I'd appreciate it if you'd let me go."

Gary finally released her wrists and pushed himself away from her, taking a good few steps to get some distance between them. Still frustrated with Misty, he went to sit down on the couch, running his hands through his brown spikes, probably at war with himself. Misty awkwardly stood still against the wall as she carefully watched Gary calm himself down. After a minute of a silence that was so thick, it even became hard to breathe, he finally spoke up.

"Don't mention this _to anyone_."

Relieved he was actually acting somewhat civilized, Misty cracked a smile at him. "As long as you stop being a jerkface to me, I won't."

He lifted up his face to glare at her. "I was not being a – !" he then swallowed his words, and went back to running his hands through his hair again.

"And don't follow me again – ever!"

Misty finally plopped down on the couch next to him. "Now why would I do that?" she asked curiously.

Gary whipped his face around and clicked his tongue at her. "You're not supposed to be here Misty – you were not supposed to even know about this. _No one was_."

Misty wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling his head close to hers and sighed. "That's no fun, what's the point of being friends if we can't even share secrets with each other?"

Gary snorted, but at least he had calmed down to the point of not pushing Misty away, or worse – pin her against a wall. "Don't think that just because we're friends, we should tell each other all the dirty little secrets we keep to ourselves."

"Good thing I followed you, huh? Otherwise I'd never know!" she joked.

This made Gary groan out loud again and bury his face into his hands. Misty gave him a few pats on the back. She then leaned down towards his face, and whispered in his ear;

"For what it's worth, I thought that was an awesome battle. You looked really cool while fighting with Umbreon, and I have absolutely no idea how you did it."

"Yeah, I was doing damn good alright, up until your sister's phone started to ring."

"Well, that just sort of makes you even more mysterious, don't you think? So here's this guy no one knows nothing of, except his fake name Peter, and his pokemon Umbreon. He beats all these other guys, and then suddenly, his phone rings with the most ridiculous ringtone ever. People aren't going to be laughing at you, they probably think you're just so cool, a girly ringtone for you is nothing."

"You know," he said, finally lifted his face out of his hands. "I was expecting a lecture from you."

She blinked a few times, remembering he had mentioned this before he started the fight. "Why would I do that?"

He blinked as well. "Well, you're Misty. The uptight Gym Leader who doesn't break a rule."

"Hey now, what part of me possibly screams 'uptight'?"

"Everything."

She slapped his back, finally letting go of the embrace as well. "It does not! Do you think an uptight Gym Leader would manage to sneak inside of a guarded building undetected?"

"Well, I'll give you that – how'd you do that anyways – but still, I was not expecting this. And by the way, we gotta get out of here before someone sees you, because the next match is coming up, and someone _will _be coming to this room very shortly."

He placed his hoodie back on his head, then jumped off the couch and took Misty's arm so he could pull her up as well. "Follow me and don't make a sound, okay?"

Misty merely grinned. "I'll try."


	6. Chapter 6

**It's Research**

**A/N:** Yup, almost two years later I update. The reason why I stopped writing is because I have switched over to writing in present tense, and I love it so much I don't want to go back anymore. I can't suddenly switch to writing present tense in this story, so that's why I put it off for a very long time. But I think you deserve at least one more chapter, which I had already written ages ago.

**Chapter 6**

* * *

><p>"Misty! Where were you!? We were calling you all night! Like, what happened?" asked Daisy in a high pitched voice once she opened the door to find Misty standing outside. It was 1 AM in the morning, it had taken a while for Misty to get back home.<p>

Misty pushed past her sister, smirking knowingly. "I sort of forgot I had it, but here you go, I don't think I need, nor want this." The redhead then took the girly phone out of her pocket and handed it over to Daisy. "Oh, and I turned it off, hence why you couldn't reach me. What a horrible ringtone by the way, but totally worth it."

"But, but I thought you'd come around and want one of your own," she sputtered a bit disappointed.

"Turns out, phones and I do not mix!" she claimed with a laugh, then went to go upstairs to her own room. She threw her backpack against the wall and fell down on top of her bed, glad to be home again after walking for so long during the night.

Gary had refused to let her stay over for another night, telling her this was punishment for following him in the first place. Misty begrudgingly accepted that that's the way he was going to act—for now—and went home in the middle of the night after they had left the battle complex. She had assaulted him with many questions, which he only answered a few, and then told her to shut up. So far, she found out he would go to this place once a week, make a bet on who'd win, and participate himself. Misty noted how he looked like he would win very battle in there, so technically, he should be rich—but he didn't answer that one, refusing to say anything more on the subject.

Even if he didn't really answer that many questions, Misty was glad to be sharing a secret with him, to know a little bit more about him. She slept very soundly that day.

Despite it being Friday, Misty had nothing better to do, so she offered her sisters to do Friday for them. There was only one trainer who came to challenge her, and Misty was feeling a bit sympathetic towards the small boy, and lost on purpose. Even though Misty was probably contributing to the idea that Gym Leaders sucked, at the moment she couldn't care less since it was boring and she hadn't handed out a badge in forever. The rest of her Friday went by uneventfully and she decided to take a break when she realized no one else would be coming to challenge the gym today. So of course, Misty had to go call up Gary and bug him.

"Hey Peter!" she chirped in cheerfully when the screen switched on.

Gary gave her the most menacing glare she had ever seen on his face, and she lowered her face in a bashful smile. "What do you want," he asked in a very rude tone.

Misty simply waved his rudeness away, finding it way too much fun to tease him and gave him a big smile. "When are you going to hand out new Pokedexes to trainers?"

The glare on his face vanished almost instantly as Misty had found a topic he didn't mind talking about and he leaned back in his chair as he tried to think. "In about two weeks."

"Seriously? That's gonna take sooo long. It's so boring when there's no trainers to challenge me, you know."

"I'm not taking you with me," he said, deadpan.

Misty rose her eyebrows. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I know what you're getting at, and my answer is no. I am not bringing you with me."

She still had no idea what he was talking about. Bringing her with him to _where_ exactly? Was he perhaps talking about his illegal underground pokemon battles? Oh. _Ooooh._ She didn't even think about joining him, that would have been a great idea! Fighting some good opponents for once—but wait, isn't she a Gym Leader? They'd instantly recognize her ... what with her red hair and all.

"I wasn't even thinking about that," said Misty. Truthfully, the idea certainly appealed to her, but unlike Gary, she couldn't simply put on a hoodie and be done with it. Though it was very tempting to try it out ...

"Good, because I'm not taking you with me."

Misty huffed and shuffled on her chair. He probably thought she wasn't a good trainer and looked down on her or something. That's not to say that Gary was a bad trainer or anything, from what she had seen, he pretty much wiped the floor with his opponent without even uttering out a word.

"Hey, how did you fight with your Umbreon anyways? I never heard you call out any commands."

Gary bit his lips and avoided her eyes, looking at his hands instead. It was another secret that no one else knew about apparently, and now Misty was even more interested. "Well?"

"Well, nothing. I don't see why I have to tell you everything."

Something inside of Misty stung; up till this point she believed Gary wouldn't hold secrets from her. Not on purpose anyway, so to hear him state it so blatantly ... well, that hurt.

"I see." Her voice was low and seeped in sarcasm.

Gary took note of this, hanging his head down with a sigh. "Fine."

She perked up immediately with a wide smile.

"I'm very popular, you know?"

Misty narrowed her eyes, giving him this unbelieving look. "Really."

"Yes, _really._ Hiding my appearance is not enough, people would still be able to recognize me by my voice."

"I didn't know your fangirls were such stalkers."

"It's not the fangirls I'm talking about—it's those brute guys who have a deep hatred against anything Oak. There's a lot of hate against Pokemon Researchers there, don't ask me why. Either way, I couldn't let them find out who I was."

Misty sat on the edge of her seat. "So, what's your secret? Does your Umbreon know telepathy or something?"

Gary shook his head with a laugh. "No, you idiot, they don't have that kind of power. They do however, have very sensitive ears. Something which I personally discovered and studied vigorously."

"Yeah yeah, give yourself a pat on the back—and then?"

"I click."

"You what?"

"Click."

"Yeah I heard you, but _huh?_"

Gary then pulled out a small silver pen out of his pocket. She leaned closer to the screen to study it, and realized it wasn't really a pen , it was thicker and there was a button on the top. He pressed the button with his thumb, and Misty expected some sort of clicking noise to come out of it—but there was none.

"Huh, am I supposed to hear something?" she asked, feeling a bit dumb.

"No, you're not," said Gary. He chuckled at seeing Misty feel embarrassed for misunderstanding it. "Only Umbreon can. I've trained him to follow commands based on my clicks, and he's the only one who can hear it. I was clicking inside of the pocket of my hoodie."

"Ooh, I thought that was just you pretending to be cool, with your hands in your pockets and stuff."

He cocked his head to the side with a scoff. "Why, _thanks_." He then stuffed the silver pen thing back in his pocket.

Misty leaned her chin on her hands and smiled at the screen, rather impressed by the idea of training pokemon simply by the sound of clicking. That was certainly an advantage over yelling out your attacks and letting your opponent know what you're about to do. In fact, it was almost genius, as there were no rules preventing you from _not _speaking (not like illegal battles would adhere to the Pokemon League rules), yet everyone else did it anyway. Not speaking not only hid his identity, it also gave him a strategic advantage, with the added bonus points of looking cool.

"You know, you're pretty smart," she said after a while of musing.

He moved a bit, half his face now off-screen, but Misty could see it. There was that uncharacteristically pink hue on his cheeks again, something she would have _never _imaged seeing on Gary's face before. He was being bashful—the Gary Oak who boasted and paraded his (non)talent to anyone who could ever listen (and to everyone who couldn't as well), was embarrassed by Misty's compliment. This made her feel—proud? Lucky? She was certain Gary wasn't a bashful person around other people, so to see that kind of side of him, she treasured it. It was nice, this kind of Gary Oak. Suddenly she felt glad to have met him, and a warm fuzzy feeling suddenly entered her stomach, catching her slightly off-guard.

"Enough about that. You never told me how you got there in the first place," he said. He was back in front of the screen, his eyebrows were furrowed and the slightest hint of him ever having blushed was erased from his face.

Misty sighed and leaned back, twirling her short orange hair in between her fingers. "Ahh, that's a secret," she said in a mocking tone.

Gary was not amused.

"Alright, alright. I was being a ninja. Ninjas don't give out their secrets."

The upper corner of Gary's lips lifted up as he gave her an incredulous look. "_What?_"

Misty simply laughed out loud, that fuzzy feeling growing bigger. This was fun. "Don't underestimate me Oak, if there's a way, I will find it!" Much more fun than going on an adventure with Ash and Brock. Much more fun than winning a pokemon battle. She couldn't keep the grin off of her face.

Gary shook his head, but was smiling nonetheless. "Perhaps I should tell them to strengthen their security, it seems to have been easy for you to get in."

"Hey! It wasn't, okay! I had to climb through a window after being gassed by smoke by two huge muscular guys!"

Gary folded his arms over his chest and gave her an all-knowing smirk. Misty hung down her shoulders and pressed her lips shut, irritated she couldn't tease him as much as she wanted before she already ratted out her own secret.

"That wasn't supposed to come out of my mouth," she said through her gritted teeth. And now she was the one feeling embarrassed, while Gary was looking at her with a smug smile. She wished she could slap that smile right off of his face, because that would be funny and then perhaps they could have another tickle battle together.

"Oh, I need to go now," Gary said, noticing the time. "I need to make sure all my research is ready for next week."

"Right, the—what did you call it—peer review thing?"

"Yeah, lots of researchers will be there, and I'll be presenting my studies to them."

Misty waved at him, not really understanding the world of Pokemon Researchers. "Good luck with that."

"Thanks." A shift, a shrug, and a slight uplift in the corner of his lips, Misty could pick up on all these subtle clues that Gary seemed to display when he was feeling bashful. She simply smiled back, feeling as if she had gotten to know Gary a bit more again, and feeling excited to know even more about him. He ended the call first, and Misty continued to sit on her chair, staring at the black screen.

"Time to go back to work, I guess," she said to no one in particular.

That fuzzy feeling in her stomach never went away. Not even when scrubbing the floors of the gym. Not even when battling a young girl for a badge. It was almost like background noise to Misty, constantly there, and she wondered why. Perhaps it was the feeling of being content at her life, feeling as if she had no problems. The feeling of having someone important again and talk to them, making memories together, finding out things about them, and then laughing together ... yeah, she had definitely missed those. That must be why she was feeling as if she were gliding on clouds and couldn't stop smiling every day.

They called each other every day, some days longer than the other, but they'd always have enough time to talk about their day. She could tell Gary was getting busier each day, and also nervous. He was going to go to some sort of conference during the weekend, to present his study—the one she helped him with—and she could tell that it was throwing him off of his game. He was easily distracted, despite having one hell of a concentration, and all Misty could do was offer him some small amount of encouragement.

That small amount of encouragement, or even a compliment, would earn her a lopsided smile and a scratch of his head. Bashful Gary, it was something she wanted to see more of it, so Misty secretly slipped in a compliment or five in every conversation they had. The more she saw this side of him, the bigger her fuzzy feeling grew. Sometimes, it felt like sunshine.

When Thursday came, Misty called him in the evening, and asked him if he went to _that_ place again. Gary said he didn't have time to fool around when he was preparing for his research, then pointed out that it wasn't like he went every Thursday either. Misty wondered what else he did in his free time. She also wondered if she could ever convince him into letting her come with him next time, because to be honest, he really was cool when he fought with his Umbreon—she wanted to see it again.

On Friday, she heard her sisters talk about the Pokemon League contacting them and asking them for an evaluation on other Gym leaders. Misty was pissed that they passed her over and went directly to her incompetent sisters. Then she wondered what the Pokemon League was up to in the first place. To let out some of her anger, she fought three trainers and showed them absolutely no mercy. When the day was about to come to an end, she gave Gary one final call before he was out of town, on his trip to the conference.

"Hey there, grumpy Gary!" she greeted him cheerfully.

Gary was sitting at the videophone, papers scattered everywhere around him, and organizing them as much as he could.

"Hey Misty," he said, very distracted. "Thanks for calling, but as you can see—"

Misty nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, you're busy."

"I have to pick up my car at the car shop in the morning, and then I'll be off for a few days. Busy, busy, busy."

"Oh, you fixed your car?"

Gary clipped a bunch of papers together and laid it down neatly inside of a suitcase. "Yeah, brought it in a few days ago."

"I was going to pay for that, you know ..." said Misty sheepishly.

Gary finally looked up from his papers and smiled at the screen. "Then it's a good thing I did it before you, no?"

Misty simply pouted at him.

"Anyways, you won't be able to reach me for a few days," he began to explain. "I'll be back on Wednesday. In time to hand out the pokedexes, too."

"Oh right, finally! I can't wait to fight new trainers."

"Don't be too hard on them, okay?" Gary grinned at her.

"I'll try," she replied slyly. "Hey, did you ever manage to find those Rhyhorns that escaped?"

Gary sadly shook his head. "I haven't had the time to look for them. Tracey is busy with some Pokemon League stuff, and gramps ... well, he's old—he's turning sixty! I promise I'll go look for them once I get back. Maybe you can even help me out."

"That sounds great!" She'd jump at the chance to do anything with Gary again.

"Okay, I gotta go now."

Her mood plummeted and her stomach swirled around nauseously. "Alright. Good luck with your ... research thing."

He smiled at her, and her stomach was filled with fireworks this time. "Thanks. See you next week."

"Yea, bye."

The screen turned black with an electric zing sound.

Misty stared at it for a long time. For a while now she has had regular contact with Gary—almost every day really, so not being able to see him until Wednesday was ... weird. She felt empty almost, and to be completely honest, she missed talking to him already. This was going to be a very long week.

And it really had been. Days were slow, uneventful, and super boring. She was so bored out of her mind that she even talked to her sisters ... voluntarily! Anything was better than sitting around doing _nothing_. A lot of the times she'd go to bed and think about how Gary was doing with his research. She wished she could contact him and ask how it went; but she couldn't do anything but wait. How annoying, how stress-inducing—when was the last time she had missed someone this much?

Ash Ketchum. Right. The brat.

Well, he didn't matter anymore, and to be frank, he could go fuck himself—that's what Misty thought at least. She might have been wishful and pining after the days of traveling again with her old companions, but now she had Gary, who filled her days with happiness and meaning.

In fact, she'd been so busy with Gary, she didn't even have time to think back on the old days anymore.

Well, that was until now, when there was nothing to do and she being lazy in her own Gym.

She wondered if what May had said was true; that the Pokemon League contacted Ash to do whatever they needed to do for them. And if so; would she see him? Misty didn't know, she was being left out of the loop a lot when it came to the Pokemon League. They were being sneaky little bastards, hiding behind their 'famous' people to do the dirty work for them. What they were planning to do, Misty had no idea—but it was definitely something alright.

Then the anointed day came. Wednesday.

Misty could hardly sleep at night; she was filled with anxious and happy feelings, that she kept tossing and turning in her bed, barely being able to close her eyes. In the morning, she was already giddy and anticipation was growing bigger inside of her stomach. She was going to see Gary again! Of course, it would take at least an hour before she could see him, what with walking over to Pallet Town and all, but it was worth it.

"Alright sisters, I'll be off!" she called out in excitement. There was no one in the room, but who the hell cared? She was leaving!

Misty opened the door of her house, only to crash into someone else.

"Whoa—talk about timing," said a very familiar voice. The person steadied them both by putting their hands on her shoulders.

Misty pushed her nose out of the person's shirt. Or, as it turned out to be, a lab coat.

"Gary!" she squealed. On complete impulse, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"Hah, did you miss me?" asked Gary smugly. Despite being smug, he did return the hug by lazily wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer.

Misty looked up at him with a very wide and shining smile. "What are you doing here?! I was just about to go see you!"

Gary chuckled. "I can see that. I was going to surprise you. Cerulean City was on my way going back home, figured I might as well save you the effort of going by foot and pick you up."

Surprised she definitely was! What a very good surprise too! Misty kept grinning at him like an idiot; one week of not seeing him was far too long. Realizing she was still clinging onto him like a madman, Misty bowed down her head and bashfully stepped away from him.

"So, want a ride back, or do you feel like walking all the way?"

Misty grinned at him and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder—the one that wasn't bruised—and shook her head. "Of course I'll ride with you."

They chatted non-stop during their ride. Misty asked how his research went, and Gary had explained half of the reactions he got were positive, and the other half negative, but that's how it usually went. He said he needed to do more research to convince more people of his stance, to which Misty gladly volunteered to help. After all, any chance to hang out with Gary and spend more time with him seemed like a good idea to her. It would definitely make her days not so boring anymore.

When they finally arrived in Pallet Town, Gary pulled up to the garage at the lab, and Misty noticed something ... off.

"Gary, what's with all this dirt around?" she asked.

Gary stepped out of the car and looked at the ground. There were paw prints indented in the dirt, indicating there had been some sort of struggle here. "I don't know ..." Gary said. "Let's go ask gramps."

They both started walking away from the garage, and up the hill to the laboratory.

As Misty neared the lab, she realized more things were out of the ordinary. For one, the huge metal doors at the front of the building seemed to have been ripped out and mangled to the floor. Both Misty and Gary gasped at the sight—what had happened!? The redhead sped up her pace, clutching her backpack because she was worried something awful had happened. She ran through the broken doors, and was met with a hall of destruction on her way in. There was rubble everywhere on the ground, potted plants were ripped out and trampled on, benches were broken and the huge doors that led to the laboratory were completely destroyed.

"Ah," said Tracey, who was standing in the middle of the room holding a broom. "You're back. Great. You can help clean up."

"What happened?" Gary asked, stepping over the rubble to get closer to Tracey. "Is gramps okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine, wasn't even here when it happened," said Tracey.

"When _what _happened?" Misty asked.

"Oh, do you know those Rhyhorns that escaped a while ago?"

"Yeah," said both Misty and Gary.

"Well, they returned." Tracey sighed heavily, leaning onto his broomstick. "Been cleaning up after them all day now. I got them all contained though, so they're locked up and safe. But man, this is hell."

"Are the computers okay?" Gary immediately asked. There was worry etched onto his face, and Misty knew what he referred to. All his research was on that computer, if he lost it, he'd lose all of his work.

"Uh, I haven't checked them yet, but one of them did manage to get inside and trash the place."

Gary rushed towards the computer room, with Misty following him, and they both walked right through the open doors and were met with a bunch of paper scattered across the floor. Misty gasped, but then sighed in relief when she saw that Gary's computer was unharmed. Gary quickly turned it on to check it, sitting on his usual chair, and his concentration zoning into his work again.

"Everything still there?" Misty asked. She leaned over Gary's shoulder to stare at the monitor.

"Seems to be. Thank god this wasn't damaged, I'd have lost most of my work." Gary sighed. "This couldn't have come at a worse time," he said, looking around the trashed room. He then looked up at Misty. "... Do you think you could help us clean up? I know this isn't what you were expecting, but we could really use some help right now."

Misty smiled at him. "Don't worry about it—of course I'll help." Suddenly Gary's face turned pale. "What, what is it?" Misty asked. She then followed his gaze, towards the storage room. Its door was open, and several boxes were spilled out onto the floor. She could see some kind of liquid pooling at the door.

"My estrogen!" Gary shrieked out in a panicked voice, then rushed over to survey the damage.

"I'll just start over here then!" Misty called out.

This was going to be a long, long day.

The three of them tried the best they could to repair any damage done by the Rhyhorns. Not only had they trampled the entrance, but managed to damage quite a few machines as well. They had bumped against some kind of generator—Misty didn't know exactly what it was, she wasn't really a science kind of girl—and a bunch of other stuff. They couldn't fix those, but at least they managed to clean up most of the hallways from the rubble, and gathered all the stray papers on the floor. She heard Gary talk about the loss of his ... drug thingy. Misty forgot the name. But he seemed very upset about it, almost blaming it entirely on Tracey.

In the midst of sweeping up some trash, Misty heard the familiar ringtone of her sister's phone go off. It came from her pocket.

"What the—I told them I didn't want it!" Misty complained. She took it out of her pocket and answered the phone. "What?" she asked, immediately irritated. "Speak fast, I'm busy."

"Misty darling, we need you back home," said Daisy on the other end.

"Right now?" Misty looked around at all the things that still needed to be done. "Can't it wait?"

"Well, we need you like, to sign some papers. Someone from the Pokemon League came by, and he asked for your signature and stuff. I don't know all that legal speak, so yah have to come, because he's coming to pick it up in the morning again."

Ugh, the Pokemon League again, always showing up at the worst of times. "Alright, fine, I'll be back before midnight then—and stop trying to get me to use your phone!" Misty yelled, and then hung up on her sister.

Misty ended up telling Gary she couldn't stay the night—though he was hardly paying any attention when she said it, he was busy checking to see if they had gathered all of the papers. So she left him alone for now, and spent most of the afternoon sweeping up dust and throwing away broken things.

When it was nearing dark, Misty was exhausted, famished and thirsty. And she still had to walk back to Cerulean City. Just great. She went over to Gary to check on his progress. It seemed he had gotten back into his old routine, because he was sitting in front of his computer again, typing on his keyboard. Misty had no idea what he was doing, and found it kind of unfair she'd been sweeping all day long, while he was simply sitting here, working on the computer with a bottle of some kind of energy drink right next to him.

Feeling a bit entitled to a break as well, Misty took the bottle from his desk. "Sneaky bastard, keeping it all for yourself. Been busting my ass all day long, and you're sitting here drinking." Misty looked at the pink energy drink with raised eyebrows; she didn't peg him for a guy who'd drink something like this. "Can I drink this?" she asked Gary, anyway, knowing he wouldn't really know what he was agreeing to because he was too concentrated on work.

"Uh sure, go ahead," he said.

Misty smiled then unscrewed the cap and brought the bottle up to her mouth. She started to drink it and was surprised by how sweet it tasted. It was pretty good. "Alright, I need to go now. Sign some kind of thing for the Pokemon League, whatever that is," said Misty.

Gary simply gave a nod of his head, and she was sure he had no idea what she was saying, but she screwed the cap on the bottle again and pocketed the bottle anyway. Misty hopped off the desk and ruffled Gary's hair to get his attention.

"Wah?" he said confused.

"I'm going home now!" she announced with a giggle. "Remember? I told you my sister called me and wants me back. So I'll call you tomorrow, okay? Good luck with everything else around here." Gary simply nodded his head again, too absorbed to even say goodbye, but she didn't hold it against him. Misty then waved at Gary and headed out, with Gary lazily waving back at her. On her way home, she drank the entire bottle of sweet water.

As Misty tried to sleep during the night when she finally got home, something inside of her started to stir. It was something she had felt before, but it had never been this powerful before, it was making her writhe in her bed, tossing and turning and feeling hot. The dream that followed was even more so. Though she wasn't so sure it was a dream, as it felt like it really happened, and all of those emotions, were they really a dream?

Misty didn't remember much of the events that transpired in her dream, but she definitely remembered the feelings. Hands that were running across her back, lips that were nipping at her neck, a tongue that was swirling around hers and breath that hit her breasts like a heat wave, making her toes curl up and gasp for air. Her skin was on fire and everywhere she was touched it felt like an explosion of nerves, goose bumps and shivers all rolled into one. Those green eyes that stared at her huskily as his tongue trailed down a path on her body, those mesmerizing eyes ...

Yeah, she was pretty sure she dreamt of Gary that night, having hot steamy sex with her best friend. This would have made her blush like a little school girl, embarrassed she could even dream of such as thing, if only Misty wasn't constantly thinking about going back to sleep and continuing her dream. She was on edge all day long, simply remembering the life-like experience, and was getting hot flashes throughout the day. Her breathing was uneven, and her skin was firing up even though the weather outside was almost chilly. What was going on with her? Why couldn't she concentrate on her duties, instead of remembering what it felt like to have Gary's hands massage her breasts?

That same day she signed that stupid document her sisters had talked about—something about agreeing to enter some kind of program, not that she really paid any attention, because she couldn't stop _thinking_ about her steamy dream.

She had another dream about him again, she woke up, her body sweating all over, and wanting so desperately to find a release from all those hormones. She found a release, but it was only temporary until she remembered what happened in her dreams once more, and her skin was heating up and giving her a warm, reddish glow.

Misty's unnatural appearance didn't go by unnoticed. While she couldn't concentrate much on her battles anymore, Misty still tried, and she started to notice that not only were there new trainers dropping by, there were a lot of males who repeatedly kept coming back. They noticed something—sensed something, about Misty, who felt hot and bothered the entire time she was fighting. The way her bedroom eyes stared at them, yelling out commands to her pokemon, her skin glowing red, her sticky hair that stuck to her face, her sweat accentuating her smooth and pale skin—they were hopelessly addicted to this glowing Misty. The redhead in question barely recognized her small cult following, as she was too busy keeping herself under control. The entire day was spent in agony, this burning desire to find a release, to find those hands that were running all over her body ... She had enough sense in her left to not call Gary—the man who was causing her to feel hot and bothered in her dreams, in fear of knowing what she might do to him in her state.

Something was seriously wrong with her, but the longer the days went on, the less she started to care, and simply caved into her hormones.

It was just another day for her, annoyed and frustrated, she took on her hordes of fanboys, who would now gather at the gym every morning, repeatedly challenging her and losing on purpose. Misty didn't care, she kicked their asses, and even made her pokemon chase them out after they lost, because they kept wanting to talk to her afterwards, and flirt with her—and she was _so_ not alright with that.

"What do you want!" she snapped at the person who bothered her five minute break.

Daisy looked hurt, but nonetheless told Misty that there was somebody on the videophone for her. She also told her to make it quick, because she still had a lot of trainers waiting for her to battle them. Misty huffed loudly, completely forgetting that it was a 'normal' thing for Gary to be calling her, and quickly went into the all familiar room with the video phone.

Misty sat down in front of the video phone and saw Gary's face staring back at her. Flashes of her dreams started running through her head, and Misty's body instantly went into overdrive. She was now sweating even more, her thin vest clinging to her back like glue, soaked in her sweat, her cheeks were a fiery red, and her eyelids were barely even open. Not to mention that she momentarily forgot how to talk, instead breathing out heavily while staring at the screen in front of her. When she saw Gary shift, Misty was pulled out of her daze, and she straightened up: she had to get a hold of herself!

"What do you want? I'm really busy at the moment. I got so many trainers challenging me at the moment, it's not even funny!" Alright, that didn't come out like she wanted it to, but Misty was on a very fine edge that was piercing her and stabbing her and making her confused and cranky.

Gary scratched his cheek with his finger and cleared his throat. "Misty, I wanted to ask you this, while you were over here, did you perhaps –"

"Misty! Your fanbase is going crazy over here!" yelled out Violet who came crashing into the room.

"Ugh! Fine! I'm coming! Sorry Gary, I'm really busy, I'll see you next week." With that, Misty ended the call and returned to the hungry trainers waiting for her at the gym.

She did it in part of preventing herself from losing control, and preventing the control in her own gym. Whatever was going on with her right now, Misty had to keep it down from overflowing, and that meant having to avoid Gary right now and ignoring the things that he did in her dreams. Then again, she was still planning on seeing him next week ... she hoped by then this stupid thing had washed over and she was feeling all better.

It didn't.

Misty couldn't believe how hot she had been feeling the entire week. It was crazy! She was feeling incredibly horny for no reason—and the worst thing was, she was so busy all week long she couldn't even find some time to find a release for her horniness. Today, the day she was going to see Gary again, seemed to be especially worse, as Misty kept feeling hotter and hotter, to the point she was wondering if she had a fever or something. She finally arrived at the lab and entered the newly renovated entrance without a second thought. She searched through the rooms, looking for Gary, and found him repairing a the generator in the basement.

It had been a very long week since she last saw him I person, and Misty temporarily sucked in a breath.

Gary wasn't wearing his lab coat at the moment, probably because he didn't want to dirty it while repairing a machine. Or maybe he was just showing off how good he we looking. He held up his arms to screw a loose bolt on the machine tight again, and Misty saw all of his glorious manliness. Her face went all red, and her vision went hazy, making Gary look even more appealing in her eyes.

"God damn it Gary, you're looking hot today—it should be a crime," said Misty out loud.

Gary finally noticed Misty was in the room and he turned his head to look at her. "Huh?" he said. But she knew he had heard her, as there was a hint of a blush on his cheeks. Damn, that made him look even more hot. He finally stopped paying attention to the machine and walked over to Misty, who was a bit wobbly on her legs. What was going on with her today? It was unbearable!

"Misty, are you alright?" he asked in a very concerned voice as he shoved his face into hers and they almost bumped heads together.

Misty felt her consciousness slip away, and all she could do was stare at Gary with lustful eyes—she was seriously horny, and he looked seriously hot. Gary's green eyes suddenly widened and he backed up.

"Shit! You _did_ take it!"

The redhead merely swayed from left to right on her feet. "Wuh?" she mumbled. Her knees then finally gave way and she dropped to the ground. Gary rushed towards her and bent down to help her back up.

"I'm such an idiot—why couldn't I have paid attention!? Come on Misty, let me turn you back to normal," he picked her up in his arms, since Misty couldn't even stand on her feet anymore. "I hope," he added.

Misty's face was pressed against his chest, so she inhaled his scent loudly and giggled, causing Gary to blush once again, but he ignored it and brought her over to a different room. He placed her down on a chair and Misty leaned back, looking at him as he searched the place frantically for something. When he found what he was looking for, he walked back to Misty and showed her a small blue vial.

"This is a tonic to lower estrogen levels in your blood. It's meant for pokemon, but seeing as you already drank the hormones to up the levels of estrogen in your blood and it was meant for pokemon, I have no doubt this will reverse the effects."

"I don't want to drink that," said Misty lazily and she pointed at the vial.

"Well, you're gonna have to if you want to return to normal," said Gary with a worried face. "Here, drink it," he offered her the vial, but she slapped it away.

"Make me!" she smiled at him, inviting him to come closer so that she could ravish him.

"You give me no other choice," he said seriously and opened the vial. He got closer to Misty, who was giggling like mad, and he held her cheeks with one hand, to make sure her face wouldn't move as he tried to pry the vial through her lips so she could drink its contents. However, Misty refused and squeezed her lips shut.

"Come on Misty!" growled Gary. "Drink it!"

"No!" she said stubbornly. Then she saw her chance, Gary had let go of her cheeks, so she moved her face closer to him, to finally kiss his lips.

Gary, shocked and startled, moved away in an instant, causing him to trip and fall backwards, with Misty following. He landed hard on the ground, but managed to keep the tonic from spilling everywhere, and Misty landed on top of him, straddling him in a very uncomfortable position.

"Oh, we could do it this way too," said Misty with a laugh. She then crawled over his body to reach his reddish face and kissed him again. With his one free hand, he grabbed her wrist to pull her away from his face to break the kiss. Misty looked annoyed at him as she sat up straight.

"I still got one free hand!" she said deviously and started to unbuckle his belt.

"Misty! Snap out of it!" yelled Gary as he tightened his grip on her wrist. He then flung her over, pinned her down to the ground and hovered over her, making sure his legs were trapping hers to the ground.

"Now, stop struggling Misty, because I'm going to shove this down your throat!" he yelled, very angry and embarrassed.

A metal tray could be heard making contact with the ground. Both Gary and Misty lifted up their heads to see what it was; it was Tracey, who was staring at them with wide eyes. Thousands of things ran through Gary's mind, but all he could picture was him on top of a giggling and red Misty, his belt buckle unfastened, his face entirely red and he had just told Misty to stop struggling so he could shove something down his throat.

"This is **NOT **what it looks like!"

Misty giggled again. "Yes it is!"

Tracey ran off.

"Fucker," he cursed as he glared in the direction his friend took off in. Gary then finally managed to pry Misty's lips open and he shoved the tonic down in her mouth, emptying it the entire way. He then threw the empty vile away and kept Misty's lips shut with his finger.

"Swallow!"

Then someone crashed against a closet. Gary looked up again, it was Tracey who had returned and was staring at him wide eyed once more.

"This is _seriously_ not what it looks like!" whined Gary, hoping Tracey would finally understand.

He didn't, he ran off again. Gary yelled out a string of curses, but brought his attention back to the unwilling Misty, who still hadn't swallowed the tonic. Misty had finally resorted to using her knee to brush against his crotch.

"Misty, stop doing that! And for god's sake—swallow that stuff!"

The redhead shook her head, wanting so badly to spit it out.

Gary sighed loudly. "Fine, I'll do it your way." He then did something that Misty didn't expect; he lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers. Misty gasped in response, which caused the tonic to slide down her throat and in turn caused her to cough like a madman. Gary finally got off Misty and pulled her up straight, he rubbed her back while she continued to cough loudly, feeling like she had almost drowned. The spiky brunette gave her soothing words and kept on rubbing her back until her coughs finally died down.

"Jerkface! That hurt!" she yelled at him, glaring at him with all her might. "But I'll forgive you, since you did kiss me."

"Great, it'll take a while before you're normal again," muttered Gary under his breath.

Misty leaned in closer again, hoping to resume what they started, but Gary had finally gotten up and kept his distance. "Hey, don't run away now," said Misty annoyed. "I really need you right now."

"Let me just say up front that I totally apologize for everything I have done, and I don't hold your irrational behavior against you. But you seriously need to stop your advancements on me!"

Misty pouted at him. "But you're really fucking hot!"

Gary simply looked at her with an exasperated expression and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Misty, I think it's best if you go back home now."

"Why don't you come with me, huh?" Misty asked with a wink.

"Seriously, go home. I'm sorry you ended up drinking the estrogen, but you need to sleep it off. Then you'll be back to normal again."

Misty giggled. "I'll do whatever you'll tell me to do if you kiss me." Bargaining had always been one of Misty's strong points.

"How about I give you a goodbye kiss?" Gary suggested.

"Yay!" Misty hopped closer to him, pursing out her lips. Gary placed his index finger against her lips, which made her knees all tingly.

"At the door," he said.

"Fine." Misty then literally dragged Gary by his hand towards the entrance. She stood on her tippy toes leaning against him, waiting for her long and hard kiss that she deserved. "Now kiss me," she said.

Gary awkwardly lowered his face towards her, and then quickly gave her a very small peck on her cheek, before he shoved her out the door and slammed them shut behind her. "Now go home!" he called out last.

"Why you!" Misty yelled, banging against the door. "I will remember this Gary Oak!" she said. Angrily, she turned around and stomped off into the distance, going back home.

And oh boy, she surely did remember everything once she'd gotten home. She remembered _everything_ in incredible detail. So obviously, the best thing to do right now, was to hide her face in shame and never talk to Gary again.

"Misty, he's calling again," said her sister Lily in a soft tone.

The redhead buried her face in her hands and refused to listen. "I'm not here!"

Ever since that whole ordeal, Misty had been avoiding Gary like the plague. It had been three weeks now since she left him behind, and she couldn't find the courage to face him again. Not after what she had pulled off—and especially not after what she _tried_ to pull off! Being embarrassed as hell to even face the guy, Misty spent her time cleaning up the gym, taking special care of her pokemon, and kicking anyone's ass who dared to challenge her.

It's a good thing Gary hadn't tried physically visiting her yet; since she'd be stuck like a rat in a cage. No, he'd be too busy to come visit her, and she thanked the heavens for that. Misty ignored her sister Lily, who then went on to tell her 'caller' that she wasn't 'there'. Satisfied that her sisters were at least doing what she asked them to, Misty continued scrubbing the floor. Her scrubbing was interrupted when a male voice called out her name. Fearing it was Gary, Misty felt her face heat up already, and she didn't dare turn around.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked and got closer to her.

Tracey was now standing behind her, and Misty sighed in relief; at least it wasn't Gary.

"Hey Tracey, what brings you here?" she asked coolly. She didn't have the heart to face him when she remembered he had walked in on her misdeeds before.

"Just running an errand for Professor Oak, figured I'd drop by and ask why you haven't come over in a while."

Misty started to blush like crazy again, and she was glad her back was turned to him and she pretended to scrub the floors. That was one questions she didn't want to answer. She still hadn't gotten over her embarrassment, and she definitely couldn't tell Tracey why!

In a more serious voice, he said; "if Gary touched you anywhere where he shouldn't have, then tell me."

Misty quickly responded. "No, no, that's not why! I'm just very busy, that's all! See, I'm scrubbing the floor! This place is stinkin' dirty."

Misty hoped that would get him off her back; she really did not want to talk about this subject again.

"Well, if you say so. Gotta run now, nice talking to you!"

"Yeah, later!" she replied, still not looking at him.

"Oh, before I forget; Gary's in town as well!"

Misty felt chills run down her back and she immediately stopped scrubbing the floor. Gary was in Cerulean City? Would he come and visit her? No way! Didn't he just call her on the video phone not that long ago? Or maybe he was phoning in to say he was in town … Misty started to hyperventilate; she couldn't face him right now! The redhead did what any other brave girl would have done; she ran and hid herself away from the Gym, where no one could find her. Which happened to be the small shed located right outside the Gym. She didn't know what came over her, but she had to avoid Gary at all costs! All costs. So Misty sat there on one of the buckets in the shed, staring through the little window where she could spy on anyone entering the gym. Tracey was long gone by now, and Misty was getting more anxious by the minute.

Now that she was thinking about it, Tracey didn't actually say Gary was going to visit her; just that he was in town. After sitting in the shed for an hour, she was beginning to think he really wasn't coming over. Maybe he was running an errand and wasn't going to visit her. That calmed her down a bit, she was overreacting a bit too much. Then again, wasn't she entitled to overreact after what happened three weeks ago? Misty shook her head and got rid of any ill and paranoid thoughts, so she finally stepped outside the shed.

If only she could turn back time, because when she stepped outside, she bumped into the last guy she ever wanted to bump into.

"Wow Misty, you came out of nowhere. You alright?" asked Gary Oak, while he held a hand on her shoulder to steady her. A bouquet of flowers was attached to his other hand.

Misty couldn't breathe anymore, let alone talk to him. Her face felt hot and red, and all the memories came back rushing to her; she wanted to scream like a little girl and run away. Instead, Misty quickly pulled herself away from Gary, avoiding his face.

"What's that Daisy? Okay! I'm coming!" she said loudly to no one in particular and ran towards the gym.

_Shit, shit, shit, shit, fuck, I'm fucked!_ Misty continued to curse in her mind as she raced through the gym, trying to get rid of Gary. As she ran through the pool, she accidentally stepped on her wet sponge she was using to scrub the floors with, and it threw her off her balance, making her topple over into the pool. Misty got submerged into water and she quickly went back up again, brushing her wet orange hair out of her face. Her hands grasped the edge of the pool and she was about to hoist herself out of it, when she saw a hand reaching down to her. Of course, it was Gary. Misty glared at the hand, but Gary wouldn't have any of it and quickly grabbed her wrist, pulling her out of the water.

Misty stood there awkwardly, not saying a word, drenched in water, staring at the shiny floor she had worked hard on scrubbing clean.

"You should be a bit more careful," said Gary in a serious voice. "You could have hit your head on the edge of the pool."

The girl said nothing, as she was trying her best to keep the blush on her face from turning into a massive shade of red.

"I'm here with Tracey, running some errand for gramps. Figured I'd come visit you. Oh, and this is for you," he said and held out the bouquet of flowers, which were all blue coloured.

Misty was still hell-bent on giving him the silent treatment, for she wasn't responding to him at all, ignoring the flowers as well—even if it was a nice touch. Noticing that Misty wasn't going to respond to him, or accept the flowers, Gary took a step back and ran a hand through his spiky hair.

"I'm really sorry, you know," he started.

This only worsened Misty's state, as she had now lost the battle and the blush was now burning on her cheeks, and she couldn't stop thinking about everything she had done to him. She had tried to fucking rape him for god's sake! Overcome with anger, Misty finally looked up at Gary, surprised to find his face was red as well, though hers was definitely worse.

"Sorry? Why should you be sorry!? I did ... I did terrible things to you!" she shrieked out loud, her voice bouncing off the clean walls of the gym. "Just horrible!" she said more weakly this time and buried her face in her hands, too ashamed to even be alive at this point.

Gary looked to the side, his green eyes focused on the water of the pool. "It wasn't your fault you were acting like that, it was my fault for not noticing you drank the tonic meant for increasing a pokemon's libido. I really don't hold it against you."

Misty then glared at him. "Well, I hold it against myself!" she proclaimed, then she gave him a hard push to his side, causing him to fall in the pool.

There was a loud splash, and the bouquet of flowers resurfaced, aimlessly floating around on the water, with Gary now coming back up for air. His usual brown spikes now clung to his face like glue. He didn't look happy one bit.

"Did that make you feel better?" he snapped.

Misty finally managed to smile. "Actually, that made me feel better by a lot!"

"Good, because I'm doing this to take revenge," he said and quickly snatched her ankle and pulled her in the pool again.

Misty spit out a bit of water out of her mouth and brushed the hair out of her face once more. She then stared into Gary's green eyes, and suddenly, she wasn't feeling that embarrassed anymore, or angry, or guilty. Misty splashed a bit of water in Gary's face, who responded by doing the same.

"So, when are you coming by again?" he asked after rubbing the water out of his eyes.

Something washed away from her as they fell into the pool, that nagging and depressing feeling in the pit of her stomach simply drizzled away. Misty swam a bit closer to him, feeling a lot more comfortable again. "I'll tell you what, if you never—_ever _mention this incident again, then I'll drop by every once in a while again."

"Oh?" he said cocky. "This incident? Sure, I won't ever talk about how we both dragged ourselves into the Cerulean Gym's pool."

Misty gave him a kick in the shins under water. "You know what I meant!"

Gary laughed at her antics, and Misty smiled in return. After three weeks of avoiding Gary because of her own embarrassment, hearing him laugh and joke around with her was really comforting. He was too much of a good friend to let something like that come between them.

"I notice the gym is looking a lot cleaner since the last time I visited. I guess your sisters weren't kidding when they said you were busy cleaning."

Misty had to blush at that, regardless of how comfortable she felt around him again. To change the subject to something else, Misty asked, "so what kind of errand does Professor Oak have you doing?" She swam to the edge of the pool and finally got out.

"Oh, we had to do some weird things for the Pokemon League, pick things up and such, he couldn't be bothered to do it himself, so he sent me and Tracey to do it." Gary then pulled himself out of the water as well. He wringed out the water from his black shirt, as well as some of his pants.

"Sorry for pushing you in," she said meekly. "I can dry them for you, if you want."

"That would be nice, since I actually have to be somewhere in half an hour."

"Alright, come along." Misty started to walk across the pool and went inside one of the backrooms, with Gary following her.

When they were walking together like this, Misty had all but forgotten (or maybe she was really good at ignoring it) what had happened three weeks ago, and she was glad she had seen Gary again. It seemed no matter how hard Misty tried to ignore Gary and push him out of her life, he wouldn't stop coming back, and Misty liked that. She liked that a lot.


	7. Chapter 7

**It's Research**

**A/N:** yes, I am not continuing this story anymore. Sorry guys, I know some of you loved it, but I honestly cannot—in the middle of the story—change tenses. That's just something I won't do because I like consistency. That said, I have written lots of scenes years ago (I don't write chronologically), including an ending, so that is what I am uploading now so that you get a conclusion, sort of.

So uh yeah, these are SCENES, they are not properly written into the story yet, because I never will, and some aren't even completely concluded and will be open ended. That means information will be missing, or I'm referencing scenes that I haven't actually written. For example, a huge plot point that I've been hinting at since chapter 1 (the Pokemon League business), was meant to play out in later chapters, but I never managed to write it. I will try to mention in each scene what had happened before so you get the gist of it, but don't expect the kind of quality you got in previous chapters.

Egoshipping is still my favourite Pokemon ship, and I might in the future write a new story in present tense!

* * *

><p><strong>Backstory:<strong> life continues as normal and Mitsy calls Gary a lot when she's not in Pallet Town.

"Hey, it's going to be a full moon in two days," mentioned Gary.

Misty shifted closer, her eyes staring at the screen. "Really? Will the Bellossoms show up again?" she asked excitedly.

"Well I can't be a 100 percent sure, but they were there last time, so maybe this time they will again."

"Ohh, let's go then! I wanna go! They were so pretty and sparkling—plus seeing the milky way out in the open forest is also really beautiful."

Gary winked at her. "I know it is, so don't tell anyone else about our little 'secret'."

Misty placed a finger on her lips and winked back at him. "My lips are sealed. I wouldn't share this with anyone else within a million years."

**oOo**

**Backstory:** Misty and Gary have planned to see the Bellossoms during the full moon. Gary decided to pick Misty up, so she's waiting for him to arrive.

The doorbell rang and Misty's heart fluttered in her throat, knowing that Gary was there to pick her up. Her lips turned into a wide smile that matched her bubbly mood, and she hopped over towards the door—a bit excited again at seeing him since it had been a week.

When she opened the door, she expected to see Gary leaning against the doorway like always, pulling off that cute little smirk of his, however before she could even tell what was going on, she was flung back by another person crashing into her and giving her a tight hug.

"Long time no see, Misty!"

Misty was startled and confused, but once she saw that her face was buried in a sea of raven black hair, she knew all too well who this was. She managed to push the now tall boy away from her to give herself a break. Her cerulean eyes looked at him up and down and she finally let out a sigh.

"Ash Ketchum."

Old emotions washed over her like a tidal wave, as well as a lot of seething anger that she had held in all this time.

Ash gave her his trademark cheeky grin as well as a thumbs up. "That's me alright! Anyways, I have some business here in Cerulean City, and I figured; I should pay Misty a visit! I haven't talked to her in such a long time," he said all this while rudely walking past her and making himself at home, with his trusty Pikachu following.

The redhead didn't really know what to do at the moment, she was waiting for Gary to come pick her up and she didn't have the time to be dealing with Ash Ketchum who decided to randomly drop down in front of her front door. It was_ literally_ out of nowhere, considering she hadn't even spoken to him at least over a year already—a very long time ago. Not only that, their friendship had all but fizzled into nothingness, and Ash, the boy whom she had so many memories with, the one who stood in front of her right now with a different kind of haircut and a new cap—he was a stranger to her. Not to mention the fact that she was getting angry by just seeing his face again. Lots of thoughts popped up in her head as she watched the boy make himself familiar in her home, thoughts such as 'How dare he show up now.' And 'It's too late now, I'm friends with Gary.'.

"So how have you been Misty?" he asked as he paced around her living room looking at all the things on the shelves. "It's been so long!" he said with a loud chuckle.

"I'm … I've been good, Ash. Lots of things happened," she then looked down with a smile as she remembered her meeting with Gary a few months back, "lots of _good _things happened. But, that's not something I should be answering. More importantly, why are you here?"

Ash sat down on the couch, having absolutely no regard to how unfamiliar he really was in her house. They had been friends, best friends in the past, sure, but that didn't give him the right to act as if he had kept on contact with her for years.

"Like I said, I'm here for some Pokemon League business. They're cooking something up over there, and they needed me here—so I wanted to come see you!"

Misty placed her hand against her forehead; a reunion with Ash came at a really bad time. Maybe when she wasn't waiting for Gary it would be better. No actually, it would have been better if this reunion happened over a year ago—when they were still talking a bit, and she still felt like they were friends. Right now, all she wanted was for him to leave, because not an inch in her body wanted to talk to him anymore.

"Ash, as much as I love seeing you again, you came at a really bad time. I've got plans, and I'm about to go out as well."

The black haired boy looked crestfallen. "Oh, I see," he said disappointed. "No worries, I can stay and hang out with you until you have to go! So, how's the gym been doing? Got any good trainers challenging you lately?"

Misty really didn't want to go and have this chat with him, because Gary was about to come pick her up, and she wasn't really comfortable being alone with Ash at the moment. All because she bore a bit of resentment towards him for never calling her and ending their friendship like that. He expected her to still be the same Misty who would eagerly welcome him into her house? Well, he was wrong, that Misty doesn't exist anymore, she had left once the phonecalls started to die out.

"The gym's been doing good—but seriously, you can't stay here Ash. Maybe we can pick another date so that we can catch up, since I'm about to go out and do something." As she said that, the doorbell rang again and Misty spun around in shock; Gary was here. Oh great, now the two would see each other, this was a storm in the making.

"Oh, don't get up, I'll get it!" said Ash happily and dashed towards the front door.

Misty's mouth hang open; she was so not expecting this to happen. Damn that Ash for showing up out of nowhere and ruining her date with Gary! The girl then frowned, that was a weird way to word whatever she and Gary did all the time. It wasn't a date, not in the romantic sense. They were gonna go and have some battles for illegal money, not something you'd want to blurt out to other people. But why was she thinking about this when _Ash freaking Ketchum_ decided to randomly pop up in her life again?

Ash gleefully opened the door, eager to know who it was—but did not expect to see Gary Oak standing in front of him.

"If it isn't Gary Oak!" he said, pleasantly surprised that Gary came to visit him after being back in Kanto.

Gary, who had been wearing that cute little smirk once the door opened, simply frowned at the sudden turn of events. "Ashy-boy, _definitely_ not the person I expected to see here."

Ash placed his hands on his hips, clearly insulted. "What do you mean, you didn't come here to visit me? You must have heard I was back in town!"

Suddenly Misty pushed him out of the doorway and gave Gary an apologetic smile. "Sorry, he just kind of popped out of nowhere today," she explained to him. Then she turned to Ash. "I told you Ash, I've got plans today. It's very nice to see you again, but you came at a really bad time."

Ash looked at her in disbelief. "You've got plans … with Gary?"

Misty stood next to Gary, each having a quizzical look on their face. "Yeah?" she asked uncertain.

Ash's mouth dropped open. "Wait wait—don't tell me you two are friends!?"

Gary simply smirked at seeing Ash's reaction to Misty having friends other than him. "That's correct Ashy-boy, what, are you jealous?"

"B-but, since when!? You guys hated each other …" then he turned to look at Gary. "_We_ hated each other!"

"Ash, as much as I love to catch up with you, I _did _have plans with Gary today. I'll talk to you tomorrow, I've got time then," said Misty, not really wanting to explain her relationship status with Gary to Ash, or really talk to him at all.

Gary nudged her in her side. "Nope, you're busy tomorrow too."

"She is?" asked Ash.

"I am?" asked Misty, equally bewildered as Ash.

"Yeah, don't you remember? A picnic … under the full moon."

Misty's cheeks tinged a bit pink at the way Gary said it. She had forgotten about the full moon the next day. He made it sound like a romantic date or something, instead of the actual Bellossom event that was going on. She didn't want to tell Ash just yet about the Bellossoms, since it was just something she shared with Gary, and no one else.

"Ah, uh, right, I almost forgot," she said sheepishly.

Ash looked at Gary, then looked over at Misty, then looked back at Gary … until he yelled out loud in frustration. "Are you two going on a date!?"

Misty's ears started to burn red, and she quickly fanned her face to cool herself down a bit. "W-what are you saying Ash," she said, clearly embarrassed.

Gary then placed an arm around Misty's neck, and pulled her close to his body. He gave Ash a broad smile and a thumbs up. "Yup, we're going on a date!" He then turned around, forcefully dragging Misty along in an almost headlock, and walked out the door with her, leaving a confused Ash behind.

"Sorry Ash, I'll see you some other time!" she hastily called back before Gary dragged her around the corner.

When her house was getting out of sight, Gary finally let go of Misty and burst out into laughter. Misty could only glare at him though.

"Did you see the look on his face? Oh god, that was utterly priceless. We have to do that again."

Misty then shoved Gary in his side, almost making him crash into a pole. "Hey, don't go deciding things on your own! Now Ash will totally misunderstand."

Gary rubbed his side as if she had hit him with a bulldozer, feigning hurt. "Wasn't that the point? You can't deny that you didn't enjoy rubbing it in Ash's face that we were friends."

Misty swallowed her tongue, as Gary was sort of right. She did enjoy the look on Ash's face when he knew that she was friends with his formal rival. Or any kind of friend at all, he was probably expecting her to be the same old Misty he had left behind when he traveled onwards with new friends. It felt kind of good to rub it in his face indeed, Gary was right. They continued to walk along the sidewalk, both being silent.

"Okay, it felt a little good."

Gary merely grinned at her and continued to walk by her side. "Told yah. But wow, I didn't expect him to show up all of the sudden."

"Yeah me neither, I opened the door just twenty minutes ago, expecting you, but surprise, surprise, it was Ash. Apparently he's got some sort of business with the Pokemon League here in Cerulean City, so he figured he'd come visit me."

"He's such a good friend, isn't he?" mocked Gary.

"Oh the best, couldn't ask for anything better!" she said equally as mocking.

"Hey now, watch what you're saying," he said in a serious tone.

Misty simply linked her arm with his and pressed her head against his shoulder. "Don't worry, you're a much better friend than Ash ever was." And also _much_ more attractive, but she wouldn't say that out loud.

"That's more like it," said Gary with a grin.

"It's been a long time since I saw him though," she mused softly. "Not as long as I hadn't seen you before, but still a long time. The nerve of him just showing up like this without so much as a phonecall beforehand."

"And he never even bothered to call you period," he said with a snort. "Real mature of him."

"Ash was never one to be mature," pointed out Misty. "Right now I sort of want to punch him in the face for dropping me like that. But I guess I can't change the past, huh?"

"Didn't you have a huge crush on him?"

Misty yanked at his arm, her cheeks heating up once more. "Don't say it so bluntly like that."

"Oh come on, it was as plain as night and day."

"It was, wasn't it?" said Misty, agreeing with him. "Yet that idiot was the only one who couldn't see that."

"I didn't even see you that much when you traveled with him, yet_ I_ still knew that. Tells you how much Ash pays attention to you."

"Don't remind me," she said through gritted teeth. "I spent a lot of my youth on a one-sided crush, it's rather depressing."

"With a guy like Ash, you should have just told him straight to his face, maybe then he would have gotten the hint."

"I guess you're right, I was at fault for never telling him. But still, that was in the past, I'm completely over it right now."

"Are you really?" he asked with a sly grin.

Misty merely grinned back. "Oh yes, it's much more fun to associate with his enemy instead."

"Enemy? Please, Ash is far too inferior to be even called that."

Misty laughed out loud, with Gary soon following. She meant every word of it. Ash might have been a good friend in the past, but things had changed, and now she was a really good friend of Gary—even more so than Ash could ever be, which included her stupid crush. It's strange how everything changed so much, but at least it changed for the better.

"Hey, are you ever going to tell me who you had a crush on?" asked Misty, remembering an older conversation they had.

"Why do you want to know so bad?" asked Gary suspiciously.

"Oh come on, it's only fair that if you knew I had a crush on Ash, that I know who_ you_ had a crush on!"

"Hhmm," mused Gary, totally not paying attention to her.

"You're so unfair, I'm dying to know who it was!"

"I'm not very proud of it, you know," he said softly. "It was just a stupid crush that had absolutely no base. We were strangers, I only saw her a few times, yet I managed to develop a crush on her even though we barely spoke. It's pathetic, and I don't really want to be reminded of it."

"Oooh, so even the mighty Gary can have butterflies in his stomach when he sees a girl," she said, teasing him. "So, do you still like her?"

"Are you asking me if I still have that pathetic crush on her?" he said bluntly. "Then, no, no I don't."

Misty pouted, because she really wanted to know who it was. Maybe it was someone she knew. "Was it someone I knew as well?"

"You really don't want to give up, do you?"

"Ah come on, I'm really curious! Let's share each other's misery that we both never managed to get what we wanted."

Suddenly, Gary yanked his arm away from Misty's, then grabbed her wrist firmly, halting her in her tracks. She turned to look at him, wondering what he was doing, and gazed into his serious green eyes. There was a look in his eyes that she had never seen before. The friendly and warm eyes she had been used to were replaced with cold and unfamiliar ones.

"I _always_ get what I want," he said almost with a sneer. He then let her wrist go and continued to walk ahead.

Misty had the strangest look on her face, wondering what was up with that.

**oOo**

**Backstory:** Misty and Gary are out in the woods hoping to see the Bellossoms.

As they lay underneath the full moon, staring at the gorgeous twinkling stars in the sky, Misty's thoughts wandered over to her old memories of Ash and her travels with him. There was a time she really missed him, and really missed traveling. Heck, there was even a time where she had gotten so depressed that she could barely get out of bed. Misty turned to stare at Gary, her best friend, and her old rival. Not in a million years had she imagined being friends with him, much less _best_ friends, sharing a special event together under the moonlight.

"Hey Gary." Misty tried to get his attention away from stargazing.

Gary's emerald eyes flickered over towards her direction, giving her his attention. "What?"

Misty rolled over onto her stomach and propped herself up a bit on her elbows, so she could look at Gary's face when she was talking. "Do you think … that … we could have been friends?"

"I have no idea what's gotten into you Misty, but I'm pretty damn sure we already are. Unless you mean to tell me I've been hallucinating this entire time."

The redhead giggled and rested her chin on the palm of her hand, gazing into his eyes. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant, do you think we could have been friends back then? When I was still traveling with Ash, and we saw each other as nothing but rivals."

Gary bit his lip and grunted in response. "I never thought of you as my rival. Not even Ash. Just an annoying fly that I had to crush underneath my boots. Ash that is, not you."

"Well, aside from that, do you think we would have been friends if … well, if we managed to talk to each other without hurling insults?"

"Probably not," he said simply.

Misty pouted, a bit annoyed at his answer. "And why the hell not?"

Gary finally turned his face towards her, he had those serious looking eyes again, like yesterday, with no trace of his childish side to be found. "Because I wouldn't want to be your friend back then. Simple as that."

She flicked her fingers against his forehead. "Now that's just rude!" she said angrily.

He rubbed his forehead, but managed to not do anything else in return. "It's not because of you, don't get angry about that. It's just that, I'm not very proud of the person who I was back then."

"Oooh, Gary Oak feels guilt about his childhood?" she mused, her anger instantly slipping away.

He clicked his tongue, finally returning to stargazing again. "In case you hadn't noticed, I was a pompous ass back then with no regard other than himself. And boy, how I hated Ash and everyone who traveled with him. Even if you were the nicest person on earth to me, I still wouldn't want to be friends with you for the sole reason you traveled with Ash."

"How in the world were you ever friends with Ash, I wonder," she muttered under her breath.

Gary simply laughed at her statement. "I guess the same way how you and I ended up being friends."

"That's a good point." Misty lay back down on the blanket again, this time snuggling a bit closer to the brunette. "Even so, was there absolutely no chance we could have been friends?"

"I don't know, maybe, maybe not. The important thing is, we are now." He then swung his arm across her shoulder and pushed her head against his. "Now shut up and enjoy the stars," he said with a grunt.

Gary shifted his body in a more comfortable position, which caused his spiky brown hair to tickle her forehead, not to mention the fact that her cheek was squished up against his. She felt herself burn up at the closeness of the both of them, but didn't say a word, nor make an attempt to move out of his hold on her. She hoped he wouldn't notice the warmth radiating from her cheeks, and she hoped he couldn't tell that she had gotten goose bumps all over her arms.

Misty's right hand was in between her body and Gary's, half resting on top of his chest. She felt it go up and down as he breathed in an out, it was sort of entrancing and comforting. A tiny smile appeared on her lips, it wasn't every day that she could snuggle this close to Gary Oak. For reasons which she did not yet know herself, Misty felt herself wanting to crawl closer to him, to hold him in her arms. Feeling a bit more daring, Misty maneuvered her body so that she was laying on her side, her head now nestled inside the nook of Gary's neck, and her body hugging his chest and legs. She grabbed his shoulder softly with her right hand, and placed her other hand on top of his chest, turning it into an intimate hug.

She didn't expect anything, well that's not true, she_ did_ expect Gary to give her a weird look and push her away. So what surprised her the most, was that Gary's hold on her shoulder tightened up, and he snuggled closer to her, instead of pushing her away. When his free hand came to a halt to rest on top of hers (which was clutching his chest), Misty started to wish that the Bellossoms wouldn't show up for today. She turned her head away from the sky, which caused her lips to accidentally graze Gary's neck as she did so, since there wasn't much space that allowed her to move freely. Misty pulled back a bit, and hoped he hadn't noticed what she did, since the action made her grow extremely red. Instead, Gary turned his face away from the sky as well, giving her more room to rest her head, very convenient indeed.

Misty cautiously rested her face inside the nook of his neck, her lips barely brushing against the soft and delicate flesh. The longer she stayed like that with him, the faster her heart was beating, causing her to feel a swarm of different emotions. It was as if he was radiating pheromones from his neck, because Misty felt herself becoming intoxicated, and for some reason, really—_really,_ wanted to press her lips against his neck. The redhead wanted to slap herself silly for even thinking such a thing; she couldn't kiss Gary's neck. Why would she even want to do that?

But then why, was she not moving away?

As she felt Gary's fingers intertwine with hers, she wondered just how friendly they could act with each other before it surpassed the lines of friendship. Intertwined hands, laying down on a blanket, snuggled very closely to each other underneath the sparkling sky, what would they look like right now if someone found them camping there? Certainly, it couldn't be friends, Misty felt way too hot and jumpy for this to be called an act of friendship. With her lips so dangerously close to his delicious neck, and Gary holding her shoulder as well as her hand … she wondered what was going to happen to them now. What surprised her the most however, was that she didn't want this to end, it felt too good for her to pull away and break contact with him. Snuggling close to Gary Oak and not wanting it to end, who knew?

Then his fingers graciously slipped away from hers, and Misty had to bite back a groan of disappointment. Gary gently got out of Misty's hold on him and crawled on his hands and knees on the dirt towards the clearing, he tilted his head and beckoned her to follow him. For a few seconds, Misty was contemplating just laying there until he returned on his own, but then got up too as she heard him hissing impatiently. She crawled across the dirt as well, a bit agitated since she was very much enjoying his company earlier, then came to a halt as her shoulder bumped into his, sending a spark of electricity down her spine.

"What?" she asked, pretending that little bump didn't affect her at all.. Though she didn't need to ask that question, because the answer was in front of her; the Bellossoms had returned for another glorious dance under the moonlight. For some reason, it didn't seem all that great to her anymore, since she was fine with laying down with him under the stars, uninterrupted.

"They're back," he said with a sort of strained voice. He finally got off his knees, and squatted down on his feet instead, giving Misty a small grin in the process.

Misty's eyes weren't focused on the Bellossoms though, she was fixated on Gary, who was only a few inches away from her. His back was arched over on his knees, and Misty could see the lines of his muscles through his shirt. She wanted to touch it, touch his skin, pull him close to her—all kinds of weird things. The warmth she felt earlier while holding him close still lingered on her skin, and she wanted it back. A strange sensation ran through her body, causing her to writhe in excitement, she couldn't deny it anymore; she wanted Gary badly. The girl leaned over, her hands and knees down in the dirt as they supported her entire body, and placed them in between Gary's feet. Green eyes flickered over her face, wondering what she was doing. She slowly lifted herself up, so that her face could reach his, their faces now only inches away, a proximity that caused his body heat to engulf her own. So entrancing, so intoxicating—she wanted more of it.

His breathing stopped momentarily, a sign that told her that maybe she wasn't so crazy for wanting something from him … something she couldn't explain. Intensity was flung back and forth between their eyes, neither of them moving closer, yet neither of them pulling away, it was almost a game to see who'd move first. He blinked once, slowly, his eyelids raising again to reveal his sparkling emerald coloured eyes. Her reflection stared back at her in his eyes, and she could see the way she was longing for him, the way her lips were already parted open, and the way her body naturally leaned closer to him. Her shoulder made contact with his knee when she started to lean closer, it made the hairs on her arm raise as the feeling was blown up in proportion to normal. In tune with her, Gary lowered his face, his eyes now only half open, wondering what was going to happen between them. Misty tilted her head up, her nose stroking against his, a feeling of safety washed over her, as well as excitement of where this was going.

They each inhaled a deep and slow breath, breathing seemed to be the only thing they could do at the moment, a feat that caused her much effort because she kept forgetting how to whenever her eyes would lock on with his for too long. It was Gary who moved first, one of his hands was on the ground, supporting his weight as his back arched forward, closer to her. When he was close enough, Misty's eyes fluttered shut in response, her heart beating in tune with the Bellossom's dance, and he finally, a bit hesitantly, brushed his lips against hers.

Fireworks erupted from inside of her, literally as well because the Bellossoms started to glow and sparkle. It was a tiny little touch of their lips, yet it held so much power over her. It was hesitant, filled with questions and worry, wondering if this was the right thing to do, maybe even considering to stop it—but Misty didn't want it to. Filled with determination to continue, Misty lifted one of her hands from the dirt, and placed it on his knee, using it as leverage for her to push herself against his body. Not used to the sudden weight shift, Gary stumbled backwards, landing firmly on his butt, with Misty toppling over him. He caught her by the wrists as she straddled his body, her waist conveniently placed between his legs, and her face hovering near his chest—the perfect way to steal a kiss from him.

Gary released her wrists, instead embracing her waist with his arms, and lowered his face once more. The closeness of their bodies together made Misty feel even more heated up than she already was, whether it'd be in her face, or between her legs, she didn't pay it much attention. Instead, she let her hand wander down his leg, while simultaneously leaning closer until their lips met once more.

Misty shivered visibly, inhaling a deep breath while parting from him, the feeling was too intense. Gary however, would have nothing of it, and used his hand to cup her chin and pull her back. This kiss wasn't as hesitant as the other two, it felt warm and curious, yet it was filled with lust and need. When her hand, that had unconsciously started to stroke his leg, came across his zipper, Gary aggressively moved his lips across hers, as if his life depended on it. She breathed hard through her nose and she returned his aggressiveness by smashing her lips against his as well, and having her fingers dig into his thigh.

She melted into his rough kiss, not minding the fact that it was a bit hurtful when he bit her bottom lip as she dragged her fingers across his thigh. His lips were hot and very voluptuous, filled with electricity as he devoured her whole, she couldn't find the will within her to deny him, and equally kissed him back as well. His hands were suddenly going up her back, making sure she couldn't escape his hold, then slipped into her hair. A new kind of feeling emerged from the bottom of her stomach, Misty decided she liked that feeling, so she let him do his thing with her hair, as she started to sensually lick his lips, begging for them to open.

A small crack opened between his lips, the hot air in his mouth escaping and gently brushing against her lips. Misty licked her own lips and gently took his bottom lip in between hers, at first sucking it with not much power, then gradually sucked it harder. She managed to draw out a low groan from Gary's throat, his body shifting and shivering against her. Misty wasn't that much different; her body was trembling, and her weight was fully supported by his, as she was half laying against him, that and his arms on her back wouldn't let her position herself either way.

She finally let his lip go, certain that it was bright red from having sucked it so much, and she gazed at him with devious eyes. Gary looked half out of it, but it made him look all the more attractive. He leaned in closer again, but this time going for her right ear. Misty grabbed a handful of his shirt when his lips brushed against her earlobe, something that made her weak to her knees and feel fireworks dance on her skin.

"Misty …" he murmured softly, causing her to shiver delightfully at hearing him say her own name. Noticing her reaction, Gary licked her earlobe with his tongue, and suddenly it felt like a whole new different sensation. Misty moaned against his chest, wishing he'd never stop. "Misty," he whispered in her ear again. A lustful smile appeared on her lips, hoping he'd say her name again—it made her feel powerful and wanted.

"Misty." His voice was louder and more persistent now, almost alarming, warning her or something.

The redhead pulled back a bit, wondering if there was something wrong. Gary stared back at her and he had completely stopped moving at this point. "Wake up already," he said.

A second went by, she raised her eyebrows. Two seconds went by, she turned it into a frown. Three seconds went by and she opened her mouth. Four seconds went by, and she finally opened her eyes.

The real Gary Oak stood looming above her body. "Good, you're finally awake." Sunlight entered her eyes and it was literally blinding her, so she shielded herself from the sun by covering her face with her hands.

"I can't believe we managed to fall asleep like that," said Gary, who was now behind her, doing something. "The Bellossoms didn't even show up last night."

A deep blush spread across her cheeks as it dawned on her that she had just dreamt of a terrific make-out with Gary. One that felt very, very real she might add, one that was so burned in her brain that she swore she could still feel his lips on her.

"Come on, red, get up and help me pack up."

Misty cracked open an eye and shifted her head so she could see Gary pack up the stuff they brought with them last night. She wondered; how much of it had been a dream? Did she start to dream as soon as they snuggled together? Or was that part of the dream as well? What exactly had been real?

"I had a dream about you," she blurted out. Oh nice one Misty, now she'll have to explain him that she fantasized about kissing kind of wanted to smack her forehead for that mistake.

"That's nice," he said, not really caring.

With a bashful grin on her face, Misty shrugged her shoulders as she spoke. "We were in the middle of a total hot make-out."

That perked his interest, he turned to face her this time and smirked arrogantly at her. "Is that so? Was I a good kisser?"

She grinned at him, despite the blush on her cheeks from the embarrassment at having to admit she dreamt of kissing him. "Do you want to be?"

Gary bent down so he could reach the blanket on the ground and started to tug at it, causing Misty to be dragged along as well. She hastily got up and pouted at him for interrupting her.

"I won't forgive you if you dreamt badly of me," he said and folded the blanket to put it away in the backpack.

Misty placed her arms on her side and huffed. "Well then, I won't tell you."

Gary then looked up at her, as if he just realized something. "Wait, you mean to tell me that while you were hogging half of my body last night, you were dreaming of kissing me? Should I feel violated?"

She made a note to remember that they had indeed been hugging each other. How much of that was real, and how much of it was part of the dream, she didn't exactly know. "Oh come off of it, I'm sure you've had weird dreams about me," she said defensively.

He simply smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively, which caused her mouth to drop open. "Eww, Gary!" she exclaimed, then punched his arm.

He laughed at her antics. "Hey now, it's not my fault I can dream about that sort of stuff. Missy 'I dreamt about making out with Gary'."

"At least my dream was a lot more PG rated."

"I'm sure it would turn into an R rating later on."

She gave him a pointed glare and crossed her arms in a defensive stance. "You don't know that."

Gary finally swung the backpack over his shoulder, having packed up all the stuff on his own already. "Oh trust me, if it's me, it certainly would be." He then started to walk away.

Remembering a long time ago he had said that he had no experience with girls, Misty saw it fit to rub it in his face this time. She hopped after him. "Oh, is that so? I seem to recall you saying something about not being confident in your experience with girls." This caused him to growl, and Misty smirked satisfactory. "Did I hit a nerve?"

"Oh, shut up Misty, let's just go home. And for the record, just because I have no experience, doesn't mean I don't want to do it at all."

"Oh my, are you telling me you'd like to have sex with me?" She batted her eyelashes as she linked her arm with his innocently. "But, enough of that," she said, changing the subject. "Uhm, did we see the Bellossoms yesterday? I can't even remember when I fell asleep." She sort of wanted to find out how much of her dream was real.

They both walked through the forest, arms linked, headed home. "No, remember, I told you when you woke up. They didn't even show up."

"Oh," she said, not really that disappointed because she got a very hot dream instead. "When did I fall asleep?"

Gary frowned at her. "I don't know, same time as I did?"

"Which was when?"

His frown deepened. "When you decided to snuggle up to me?"

"Oooh, okay, so that wasn't just part of my dream."

"Just what the hell did you dream about exactly."

Misty shyly moved her head down a bit. "Well, we were snuggling closely together, staring at the sky. And then, uhm …" she averted her eyes away from him, too embarrassed to talk about her dream at the moment.

However, Gary's interested was peaked, and he wouldn't allow her to stop. "And then?" he pressed on.

"I sort of, vaguely, remember my lips brushing against your neck," she admitted.

Gary said nothing, as he waited for her to continue. She hoped he wouldn't bend down to see her face, as it was as bright as a cherry. "Then the Bellossoms appeared, I remember that."

"At least you had a good show in your dream."

"Uhm, I didn't even pay attention to it, hehe," she said sheepishly.

"Oh, couldn't turn your eyes away from my devilishly good looks?"

"More like, _you _couldn't stop staring at me."

"But I bet you were the one to kiss first."

"Shut up, I did not! You leaned in first!"

"But did I _kiss_ you first?"

"Well … sort of … your lips brushing against me counts as a kiss!"

"It so does not, you kissed me first—_and you liked it_," he said that last part with a laugh, totally mocking her.

"It's not like you were complaining," she grumbled about her dream Gary. "In fact, you were moaning out my name! Right before you woke me up, actually."

"That's nasty, Misty."

"Shut up, you wanted to know."

"Point taken."

"… Why are you smiling so weirdly like that?" she asked, finally daring to take a peep at Gary's face.

He frowned then shook his head. "Am not," he denied, then put up a scowling face.

Misty merely smiled knowingly at him and leaned her head against his shoulder, her other hand resting on his arm as they continued to trek through the forest. It was nice to be able to tell him things like this without their friendship turning weird or awkward. Instead, they joked around and were the same as always, that's what she liked about Gary.

**oOo**

**Backstory:** more progress happened between Misty and Gary, and Misty has slowly accepted the fact she likes Gary. Right after that, the Pokemon League business finally starts to matter, as Misty is summoned to go to Sinnoh for an entire month to train (all Pokemon Gym Leaders are required).

"You're kidding me, right?" asked Misty in disbelief. "They want all gym leaders to be trained for an _entire month,_ because we're not up to par!?"

Daisy looked at her weirdly. "Misty ... you were the one who signed the document in the first place. Didn't you read it through?"

Ignoring the fact she had totally _not_ read the document she signed on that day she had taken a heav dose of estrogen, Misty continued to rant on. "But but, what about the gyms themselves? What will happen to that?"

Her sister frowned. "Well, they didn't tell me that much, I think they're just shutting the gyms down for a month. Either way, you're the one going, not us."

"And when exactly will that be?"

"They said you should be in Jubilife City by next week."

Misty's eyes grew wide in utter shock. "Jubilife? That's … that's in Sinnoh!"

"Yup, so good luck with that lil' sis, we'll take care of the gym for you. Somewhat."

Daisy finally left Misty alone, and the redhead was still in disbelief at the new information. To go on a training spree for an entire month in Sinnoh? That was like, on the other side of the country! And it couldn't have come at a worse moment, since she had just realized she really, really liked Gary.

**oOo**

**Backstory:** Misty is training hard in Sinnoh along with all the other gym leaders (Bradley is training Misty personally). She calls Gary whenever she gets the time. Gary is currently working on cracking some kind of DNA code for a pokemon. This scene is written in Gary's PoV because sometimes I write scenes twice to know what the other person is thinking, I just never managed to write Misty's version.

"Ugh, I've been so busy these past few days, it's been driving me mad!" complained Misty over the video phone.

Gary chuckled at her feistiness. "Oh right, I forgot—I cracked that DNA code."

Misty's eyes lit up in a second. "Really? The one you've been working on for a month?"

"Yup! I managed to solve it two days ago."

"Oh my god, congratulations! You did it again, Gary Oak!" she said happily.

That was the reaction he was looking for; the redhead smiling at him and complimenting him like she always did. Gary felt a lot more content now.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there during your major breakthrough. I really hope this conference thing will be done with soon."

"I agree, they've been hogging you for far too long," said Gary while folding his arms over his chest. The girl on the other end of the screen gave a small giggle.

"What's that Gary, you miss me?" she said teasingly. Gary didn't respond; agreeing to that was too embarrassing. She waved her hand at him, as if to dismiss his childish embarrassment. "Don't worry, I miss you too. Wish I was home already—it's so boring without having you around."

Gary gave up on the idea of withholding the fact that he really missed her. "You have _no_ idea. I never really noticed how empty the lab is without you breathing up all the air inside of it."

"I don't know whether that was a compliment or not—but I'm gonna take it as one!"

He saw another person enter the video phone screen, so his vision of Misty was blocked.

"Come on Misty, let's go," said the man, then he left the screen.

"Sorry Gary, I gotta go. I'll promise to call again tomorrow!"

Irritated that his conversation was cut short by this unknown man, Gary grudgingly said his goodbyes to Misty.

**oOo**

**Backstory:** directly follows the previous scene, back to Misty's PoV again. Misty comes across a familiar person in Sinnoh.

"Hey Ash! I didn't expect to see you here," said Misty as she walked over to Ash, who was eating lunch on a bench.

"Oh hey Misty, nice to see you! Yeah, I'm here as a supervisor."

"You are? So you're going to be training me then?" she asked curiously.

Ash simply nodded with a smile. It's been a while since she saw him again, and she never really bothered to see how much he had changed since they were kids. He had definitely grown a lot taller, and far more broader. He probably had a very muscular build as well, since training Pokemon does take it out on you. His black hair was unruly as always, and stopped short right at his neck. A new cap adorned his head, which had the new logo of the Pokemon league on the front. Aside from his body looking different, he hadn't changed all that much. It was still Ash.

"So, is Brock going to come over here too? This feels a little nostalgic," she said and looked around the arenas with people battling with their Pokemon.

"Brock? No, last I heard he's busy running his daycare center."

Misty nodded slightly, assuming that he kept as much contact with Brock as he did with her, which was none. She then sat down on the bench next to him, and Pikachu gladly greeted her, sitting on her lap happily chattering away.

"Hey Pikachu, I missed you!" she said and patted the yellow mouse on his head."Haha, it seems you've grown a lot stronger! I hope Ash still treats you well."

"Pika, pika!" said the Pokemon happily, and snuggled up against Misty.

"So how's your gym doing?" asked Ash.

"Well apparently, the Pokemon League seems to think it's doing rather awful," she joked. "Truthfully, it's doing just fine. A bit boring sometimes when there are no challengers, but I can't complain."

"I see. Are you still dating Gary?"

That question really came out of nowhere, that Misty's jaw dropped open and she started to sputter incoherent things. "N-no! We were never dating in the first place!"

Ash rose his black eyebrows up to his cap. "You weren't? I'm pretty sure Gary said the two of you went on date last time I saw you."

Misty waved her hands in front of her face to indicate clearly they were not dating. "Gary was just messing with you at that time, we are definitely not dating."

Ash then started to laugh out loud. "You're right, it would be impossible for the two of you to date, much less be friends!"

Misty frowned at him. "I am still very good friends with Gary, just so you know. I really did have plans with him on that day."

"Really? So you two are best buds now or something?"

She stroked Pikachu's head and smiled at the Pokemon. "Pretty much. I still call him each day just to chat and let him know how I'm doing over here." Unlike _someone_ who never bothered to call her at all, no matter how busy he was.

The boy chuckled awkwardly. "Who knew, one of my old best friends and rival managed to become really close friends later in life. I'd have never guessed it."

"Well, life moves on, Ash. It'd be weird if it didn't."

"I guess that's true. I can't expect you to still be that Misty I knew of several years ago."

Misty had to smile brightly at that. It was proof that she had managed to move on with her life after she stopped traveling with Ash. Suddenly, she didn't feel that pathetic anymore, she was actually quite content with her life at the moment. Just over half a year ago she was complaining her life was boring and static. Ever since Gary entered her life, she's been enjoying it once more.

Then she hit Ash's cap with her finger. "But _you_, you're still the same as you were back in the old days!" she said while laughing. It was true, Ash hadn't changed a bit aside from physical changes.

Ash slapped her hand away. "Hey, I resent that! I did too change!"

Misty simply laughed at him, the finally got up as Pikachu hopped off of her lap. "Well, it's nice seeing you Ash, but I gotta get back to training! See you later!" she then waved at him and ran away with a large and content smile on her lips.

She had changed, she wasn't the puny Misty Waterflower that followed Ash everywhere anymore. No, she was _the _Misty Waterflower, she was her own person who quite enjoyed her life at the moment. She might not have a boyfriend as she hoped, but that barely even mattered anymore when she enjoyed spending time with her best friend. Which definitely wasn't Ash anymore.

As she finally finished up her training for today, Misty hurriedly went over to the videophones to call Gary and just share her good day with him. She hadn't managed to see Ash anymore after their little chat, but it's not like she was expecting too anyway. The videophone dialed over a few times, almost taking an entire minute before the screen flicked on and she saw Gary in his familiar and old lab coat. His hair was the same as always; messy and at the same time, very alluring.

"I was in the middle of so-" he began, but Misty cut him off.

"Hey there, Gary!" she said very cheerfully, causing Gary to look at her weirdly. "You never guess who I saw today."

"I don't really want to guess. And what's with that dumb, goofy smile you have in your face."

"Ash Ketchum! Yup, it appears he's working here as a supervisor." As soon as Misty had finished saying that, their connection broke.

_Caller broke connection._ It said on the monitor. Misty bit her lips and huffed indignantly, then redialed Gary's number. After a few seconds, he picked up again.

"How rude!" said Misty as she tried to glare at him.

"Oh I'm sorry. I assumed you were going to tell me about your best day yet that involved Ash Ketchum. Stuff I'd rather not listen to."

Misty pouted like a little child, offended Gary even broke their call because she was happy to see him again. "That's not it. I just had a small talk with Ash, and realized something very important."

"Do I dare ask what?" asked Gary in a toneless voice.

Misty smiled brightly and puffed up her chest. "I am Misty Waterflower!"

The screen flickered off once again, showing the same message as before. Misty growled out loud and stomped her foot on the ground. The nerve of that guy! She quickly redialed his number. When his face popped up on her screen again, she angrily pointed her finger at him.

"Oops, my finger slipped," he said, feigning innocence.

"Look here you little shithead, do that again and I won't talk to you ever again!" she yelled at him.

Gary simply laughed at her antics. "Now _that's_ the Misty Waterflower I know, not the happy-go-lucky ditz I saw just a few seconds ago. It was kind of creeping me out, really."

Misty didn't know whether to feel insulted, or complimented, but decided on the former. "Well _so-ry_ for feeling rather happy today. I was just happy to share the news with you."

"News? That you're Misty Waterflower? I think I knew that from the moment we met."

"Argh, not that! It was an epiphany! An epiphany I tell you!"

"Sure, whatever you say Misty."

She was feeling rather exhausted dealing with Gary like that, but hey, it was Gary. What did she expect? Misty shook her head and smiled, she wouldn't have had it any other way.

"So how's it going in the lab? Still working on that DNA code?" she asked, completely changing the subject.

"Yeah, in fact, I was working on it right now. Until you oh so rudely interrupted me."

"Oh my, I'm so awfully sorry. What ever could I do to make it up to you?" she said in a sickly sweet voice.

Gary placed his fingers on his chin, pretending to be deep in thought. "I don't know. Maybe stop calling me?"

The redhead snorted in response. "Yeah right, like I could do that."

"So, how was your day? Aside from that _epiphany_ and all."

"Don't mock my epiphany!" she said, pointing her finger at the screen once more.

Gary held up his hands. "Oh no, I could _never_ do such a thing."

"Well same old, same old. Training the whole day, then I met Ash who was eating lunch and found out he was a supervisor. Then trained some more and then I called you."

"Yuck, you didn't even take a shower after all that training?"

Misty lifted up her arm and smelled her armpit. A nasty stench of sweat engulfed her nostrils, and she pulled a foul face. "I guess I should, huh?"

"You think?"

Misty giggled at him, knowing he was right. She was sweating rather a lot during the day when training so hard with her Pokemon.

"Alright, I'll take one once we hang up."

"Sweet, I get to know my best friend went all hot and naked after our call."

Misty glared at him as her cheeks turned a bit pink. "Bastard," she said with a pout and covered up her breasts with her arms.

Gary simply laughed over on the other side of the call. Then he suddenly turned his head away from the screen. "Give me a second!" he yelled, probably to Tracey. He turned back to Misty again. "Sorry, gotta go, I did tell you I was in the middle of something."

"Yeah yeah, excuses excuses," she said with a smile. "Go do your thing, I'll take a long shower, rubbing soap all over my hot body."

The brunette laughed once more and shook his head. "You go ahead and do that. See yah."

Misty bid him goodbye as well and turned off the videophone. She skipped over to her room, all giddy and happy of having talked to Gary for today, which always made her mood 100x better than before. She gathered some of her stuff together, getting ready to take a shower. She placed it all in a bag and went over to the showers.

The room was a big square, full of white tiles and small cubicles for more privacy during showering. Luckily no one was there, so Misty went to the further cubicle in the room and locked the door. The cubicles were still rather open, and only the walls and door covered most of their body, but their faces were still rather visible, especially if you were tall. She slowly started to undress and safely stacked her clothes away in a hole in a wall, as well as all of her other stuff. She turned on the shower, and shrieked away from the cold water raining down. After a few seconds, the water started to get warm so she stood underneath the head, letting the water hit her skin.

Her thoughts wandered over to Gary and what he was working on at the moment. Even though they were far apart from each other, they still shared what happened during their days, and Misty was very grateful for that. She felt more at home whenever she talked to Gary, since she got a little bit homesick without him. Which was embarrassing enough to admit. As she started to rub soap on her body, she snickered at what she had said earlier. It was rather weird how she could make perverted jokes with Gary, considering the incident that happened a few months ago. Misty grew red just at the memory of it, and shook them out of her head. She would rather not be reminded of that again, it was truly horrifying and embarrassing to her.

When she suddenly heard another showerhead turn on, Misty covered her body up with her arms and frantically looked around to see who else was in the showers.

"Oh hey Misty, taking a shower too?" asked the all familiar voice of Ash.

Misty felt like she could crawl in a hole and die—why did Ash have to come in and take a shower too? She looked across the room and saw he had taken a cubicle on the other side of the room. Good, at least he wouldn't be able to see anything.

"Seems like it," she said, a hint of sarcasm tinting her words.

This was rather awkward, especially since that conversation they had today. Misty awkwardly rubbed her body to get rid of the soap, as she wanted to get away as soon as possible.

"I couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation with Gary just now."

"What!? That's private!"

"Hey, that's rude you know. We were friends once too."

Misty gritted her teeth and quickly washed her hair with shampoo. "That doesn't matter, a phonecall should be private, you shouldn't be listening in on it at all."

"Anyways," he said, totally ignoring what she said a few seconds ago. "After seeing you so giddy just by talking to him." Misty blushed a deep red at that. "I realized I should probably apologize."

Misty looked over at him, though she couldn't see anything but steam. "Huh?" she said dumbfounded.

"I'm not one to call people … so yeah … I'm sorry I never did," he said more bitterly this time.

"I can't believe it, Ash Ketchum apologizing for his behavior," she said loudly. "Maybe I was wrong, maybe you _have_ changed."

"I told you I did!" he said incredulously.

Misty laughed out loud, frankly not caring about his apology. She got over that a long time ago, as she realized today in her epiphany. It was silly of her to ever expect to keep close contact with Ash once she became a gym leader. And it was silly to even resent him for it.

"It's alright Ash, no hard feelings." She smiled to herself as she realized that Misty really had no more hard feelings. She used to resent Ash for a lot of things, but now? Not a shred of any sort of emotion was coming out of her now that Ash apologized to her.

"Hey Ash, let me tell you something funny," she said, feeling perfectly ready to say this.

"What's that?" he asked from the other side of the room.

"You know when we were still traveling together?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I had this huuuuge crush on you. Enormous, really. For a very long time as well."

She could literally hear Ash's mouth drop open in shock, even though the room had a thick fog of water hanging around them.

"S-seriously?" he asked in a shaky voice.

"Oh you betcha I did. Why else would I have traveled so long with you? Because I wanted back my bike? Hah! Who'd fall for such an excuse." She then snorted loudly. "Right, you did. I almost forgot."

"I had … I had literally no idea, Misty."

"I know you didn't, hence why I'm completely over it now, and again, no hard feelings Ash. You just didn't see me that way, and I was too much of a coward to let you know how I felt." Misty then stretched her arms in the warm water. "Ahh, that feels good getting off my chest."

"Misty, I-"

"Say no more, say no more Ash. It's in the past now. I hope we can still be friends," she said while smiling still, the finally fetched her towel, wrapped it around her and stepped outside the cubicle with her other stuff in tow.

**oOo**

**Backstory:** set a few days later after the previous scene. Misty is amazed she managed to tell Ash she liked him, and feels she has completely gotten over him. Right now she's on the phone with Gary.

"Hello, Misty? Can you hear me?" asked Gary. Misty blinked and shook her head, then greeted Gary as well. "Got a lot on your mind?" he asked, noticing right away that she was thinking about something.

"Well, I just did something totally out of character for me," she said tonelessly.

"And what's that?"

"A few days ago, I confessed to Ash."

Gary's eyes grew wide and his face told it all; what the hell was she talking about.

Misty shook her head. "Sorry, let me re-word that. A few days ago I confessed to Ash that I had a crush on him when we were still traveling together. I managed to finally let him know what I felt for him, because I seriously had no shred of emotion left for him anymore."

"Thank god, here I was thinking you were shacking up with Ashy-boy or something."

**oOo**

**Backstory:** just more fluff, Misty is still being trained hard by Bradley.

She didn't have the chance of calling Gary like she usually did each day last night, she was so overworked by Bradley, that she simply fell exhausted on top of her bed, and never got back up again until morning. It made her anxious to knew she skipped a phonecall, especially since that was the only thing to look forward to during her entire day.

So when she was finally done with her day, she raced over towards the videophone hall, eager to call Gary and tell him how sorry she was for missing their daily phonecall. Misty wiggled nervously on her seat, waiting for Gary to pick up the phone. When the screen turned on, Misty smiled brightly.

"Hey Gary!" she greeted.

Except it wasn't Gary that had answered the phone, it was the real Professor Oak.

"Why hello there, Misty. I'm sorry to say but, if you were calling for Gary, he's out of town at the moment because of an errand I made him do."

Misty felt crestfallen at this news. "Oh, that's alright. When will he be back?"

"Hmm, maybe in a day or two. Do you want me to leave him a message?"

"No that's alright, Professor Oak, thank you for telling me."

**oOo**

**Backstory:** Misty manages to call Gary this time.

Misty rubbed her sore shoulder with her hands, wishing her muscle pains would disappear already. "Ugh, I'm so sore everywhere," she complained to Gary.

Gary merely snickered, probably because he was amused at seeing her in pain while there was absolutely nothing wrong with him.

"A good night's sleep should fix that," he added with a smile that was trying to say 'haha, you're miserable and I'm not'.

"The beds are really uncomfortable in here, you know, it's like I'm sleeping on the floor!" She massaged her shoulder once more, then thought of something. "The first thing I'm gonna do when I get back, is sleep in your bed."

Gary rose his eyebrows at this, then smirked at her. "Why, Misty, I didn't know you wanted to bed me that badly."

"Whether you're sleeping in it or not, I _am_ going to concur that bed. Just watch me."

"You never managed to sleep in it till now, so what makes you feel so confident it will be different this time?"

Misty placed on a smug smile. "Because you're not going to kick me out of it—and I won't allow you to do it either!"

"We'll see about that, red, we'll see."

**oOo**

**Backstory:** Misty has finally finished her training and is back in Kanto again. Remember the Rhyhorns that trampled the lab in the previous chapter? Well, the generator is still broken, and will make a return again in this scene.

Misty couldn't help but feel extremely excited at the prospect of seeing Gary again. It had been a very long and exhausting month for her, being away from him for so long had really paid a toll on her. That's why she wanted to surprise him, she told him that she'd be back in Cerulean City tomorrow night, while she was actually back in Pallet Town already. It was in the middle of the night, so Gary was probably asleep, he was going to have one hell of a surprise. Misty bit her lip to keep her smile from spreading, then bent down to lift up the rock on the floor and take his spare key. It hadn't moved since the last time she used it, that almost reassured her to know she could always return to his place.

She entered the house quietly, walking slowly to prevent the wooden floor from creaking too much. She made her way across the stairs, knowing exactly where to go even if it were dark, getting closer to his bedroom, and she suddenly found her heart to beat faster with each step she took. Whether that was from excitement at seeing him again, or something else entirely, she didn't know, but at the moment, she frankly couldn't care because she was going to see Gary again. Misty placed her hand on the doorknob, then waited a few seconds in case he was awake, but when she didn't hear any movement from his room, Misty inhaled a large breath then turned the knob over and quietly opened the door.

Gary's sleeping frame was slightly visible in the dark, with a small ray of moonlight peering through his curtains that lit his bed up enough for her to see him. His hair was sticking out in all directions from underneath the blanket, covering his face. Misty closed the door behind her and inched closer to the bed. There were a few things on her mind; the fact that she was so happy to see him again, and that she was still planning on sleeping in his bed. Misty sat down softly on the bed, as not to wake up, then stared at his sleeping frame, his stomach slowly going up and down as he breathed in and out.

Misty resisted the urge to touch his cheek with her hand, or run her fingers through his hair—an urge she had never really felt before until she saw him again. She had missed him so much, she wanted to wake him up, but decided against it. Instead, Misty quickly undressed in her pajamas, knowing Gary was in deep sleep and couldn't see her anyway, then she crawled underneath the blanket and snuggled up close to Gary with a bashful smile. She could feel his hot body warmth engulfing her own, since he had probably been sleeping for hours already. She had to grin, knowing she had won the battle and was going to sleep in his bed now.

Then suddenly, Gary moved around, and Misty could spot the sparkle from the moonlight in his eyes as he opened them. There were a few long stretched out seconds of silence, with Gary stupidly staring at her without saying a word.

"Misty?" he asked with a strangled voice, considering she just woke him up.

She lowered her head a bit in embarrassment, but couldn't help the smile spreading on her face. "Surprise!" she said meekly. "I came back earlier."

"But," he started slowly, probably half asleep still. "Why are you in my bed?"

"I told you the first thing I would do is sleep in your bed when I came back."

"Ah," he said slowly. Then he did something Misty didn't expect. His arms snaked around her waist, grabbing onto her back as he pulled her close, pressed up against his chest. "Then I'll just go to sleep like this."

Misty blinked a few times; not expecting him to embrace her and hold her close to him. He was probably still half asleep and not really aware of the fact that she was back, and in his bed, but at the moment, when his warm hands where clutching at her back, she could care less if he thought it was real or not. She couldn't deny that it felt very good to be in his arms—especially since she hadn't seen him in a while. Seeing him again and feeling his arms embrace her was like a warm blanket covering her sensations. She felt warm and comfortable against him. It was so comforting that Misty couldn't help but close her eyes and fall asleep, right in Gary's arms. The next time she woke up again, it was morning and she was alone in Gary's bed. Misty sighed loudly then turned around on her stomach, burying her face in his pillow. It smelled of him, something which made her smile. She had really missed him, and the first thing she did was sleep in his bed, how outrageous. She snorted at herself, then took comfort in the fact he hadn't kicked her out of his bed. Nope, he held her close! The girl blushed deeply, then shook her head and got out of his bed.

Gary was downstairs, preparing some breakfast. Misty stared at his back, he was sloppily half dressed, only wearing sweatpants and showing off his naked back. She wasn't much different as she was only wearing some white long pajamas that barely didn't cover her knees. The redhead continued to stare at him for several more minutes, not thinking about anything else but him. An entire month of being away from him really made her see things weirdly, because she wanted nothing to do but just go up to him and hug him real tight, to feel his naked back pressed up against her. When he finally turned around to acknowledge her, Misty snapped out of her daze.

"Good morning!" she said happily, pretending to not have stared at him for several minutes.

"Morning," he said in a scruffy voice, which made him sound really sexy. Or was she just imagining things?

The redhead took a seat at the kitchen table and her cyan eyes continued to follow him around. His hair was messy, like his usual bedhead look, his toned chest was looking really good, and it really didn't help that his green eyes were half-open, giving him this sensual look. Misty couldn't believe her own thoughts; she had done nothing but stare at Gary's body, or think about it when she came back!

"Want some eggs?" he asked after a while of silence. He voice sounded a bit strange, but she couldn't quite place it.

"I didn't know you could make eggs," she replied. "Since when can you make them?"

Gary flicked a smile at her direction, making her feel woozy in her head. "Since you left and I missed your food."

This made Misty stand up and walk over to him, not believing his words until she saw the eggs herself. Yet there it was; a frying pan on the stove with a nice egg bubbling in the middle of it. He was actually cooking breakfast. When her shoulder accidentally brushed against his naked chest, Misty jerked back in surprise; forgetting how close she was to him. Weird sensations ran through her body during that brief contact. She was seriously so into him right now, it was crazy!

"I can't believe it, but you're actually making a decent looking egg," she said softly. Her eyes however, weren't looking at the egg.

"You better believe it!" he said proudly, puffing up his chest to emphasize his point.

Again, Misty couldn't tear her eyes off of him. Had it really been that long since she had seen him strutting around half naked? During the time that she was gone, she had really missed his company, but it seemed she had really missed his body as well! Misty placed a hand on his bare shoulder, letting the tips of her fingers softly caress his skin, and felt the hairs on her arm stand up straight, then pushed herself forward to bend down and smell his egg.

"Hhmm, smells really nice," she admitted. Misty pulled back and gently let her fingers trail over his shoulders before she pulled away completely. It was entrancing the way she was so intoxicated by him. He was looking damn fine in his sweatpants and his bedhead look, and Misty really couldn't deny how attracted she felt to him. And here she was; sitting in her old pajamas that was way too big for her. No doubt very unattractive. Feeling a bit ashamed at her actions, she went to sit down again and tried to get a hold of herself.

"When did you get back? I thought you weren't getting back until tomorrow."

Misty propped her elbow on the table and leaned her face on her hands. "I got back last night, I wanted to surprise you by being here early."

"Well, you certainly did surprise me," he mumbled under his breath. This comment made Misty blush hotly, since she did sneak into his bed and slept with him.

"Aren't you going to ask me how my trip went?" she asked, feigning hurt.

Gary spun around to face her, and leaned against the kitchen counter. "How was your trip?" he asked nonchalantly.

"It sucked."

"You shouldn't have gone then."

"I couldn't very well deny the Pokemon League!"

"You have every right to deny something."

"Not if I want to keep my position as a gym leader."

Gary then finally turned his attention to the egg again. After a while of prodding the egg with a spatula, he spoke up. "Aside from lover-boy Ash, did you meet any other guys there?"

Misty's ears perked up and she sat up straight. "Why? Jealous?" she taunted him.

The brunette slipped the finished egg on a plate and slid it across the kitchen table towards Misty. "In our videocalls you sometimes get interrupted by some guy calling your name," he replied.

Misty pointed at the kitchen drawer, indicating she wanted a fork, but her eyes never left his. Yes she did meet someone else other than Ash over there, but it's not like she considered him a friend or anything. It was none other than Brawly, the gym leader of Dewford Gym. Gary fished out a fork from the drawer and gave it to her, his eyes lingering on hers for a while, waiting for her to respond.

"Oh, that's just Brawly," she said offhandedly, then took the fork and tore off a piece of the egg. "We had a lot of assignments together, so he kept bugging me every time I was slacking off." Misty then popped the piece in her mouth and chewed on it.

It wasn't bad, not that bad for someone who could only make Mac & Cheese in the beginning. Gary placed his hands on his side and cocked his head at her. "Well?" he pressed on. Misty stared at his half naked body and it didn't register in her mind he wasn't waiting for her reply.

Misty swallowed. "Well what?" Did he expect her to explain that she had no romantic interest in Brawly?

"Who was it again that said something about it only being polite to say the food was good?" He pointed his index finger at the egg.

"Oh! Yes, it's not that bad."

Gary turned around to prepare for his own breakfast. "Good."

"So," she started and played around with her fork for a bit. "What have you been doing while I was gone?"

"You mean, aside from learning how to cook eggs?" he asked with a chuckle. "Nothing special, work as usual. You should know, we almost called every day."

Being reminded of one of their earlier conversations, Misty said; "right, you finished cracking that DNA, how did that go?"

"I wouldn't want to bore you with technical details, so I'll just say I'm still fine-tuning it before I present it to the other Researchers."

Misty smiled at him; it somehow made her feel proud whenever Gary did something intelligent. "You're so smart," she complimented him. "I wish I had brains like yours."

"And my good looks," he laughed.

"Hey! Are you saying I'm not good looking?" she asked him with a pout, though he couldn't see her since he was busy making another egg.

"I'm saying you wish you had my good looks. After all, I'm far more attractive." His words sounded like he was subtly trying to insult her, but Misty knew better. After she had known him for a while, she knew that Gary would put up an arrogant front to swiftly deny something he didn't want to answer. She quietly smiled to herself and decided not to say anything.

Gary continued making his egg, and Misty slowly ate hers. He then finally finished his own portion and came to sit at the table with her, taking a seat next to her. His bare chest hung over the table as he cut up the egg and started to eat it. Misty tried her best to not stare at him. It was insane how much she wanted to look at him, stare at him, touch him—insane! One month away from each other couldn't possibly make her this crazy, right?

"Did you have any fun while you were there?" he asked after a while.

"Talking to you was the only fun thing I did over there," she said with a loud huff. "They made me work so hard on shaping up my skills, and Brawly kept annoying me with more work. It was hectic really, no time for fun."

Misty was then startled when Gary ruffled her orange hair with his hand. "Welcome back then," he said with a charming smile that made her melt into a puddle of drool.

Feeling devious, she placed her hand on top of his right thigh and asked; "did you miss me?"

Gary's leg jerked in response at the sudden contact, but he tilted his head to look at her. "Do you _want_ me to miss you?" he asked back.

She gave a slight squeeze and grinned. "Maybe."

Not expecting that kind of answer, he coughed and returned to eating his egg. "Then yes."

Misty finally lifted her hand up and stared at the egg in front of her. She knew Gary missed her, maybe not as much as she did apparently, but he definitely did miss her! Which made her feel all bubbly inside, since they were at least feeling the same thing. Then again, it was her that was going gaga for his body at the moment.

"Is it bad?" he asked once he noticed she wasn't eating.

"Oh no, I was just … thinking," she said sheepishly and finished eating her egg. The egg really wasn't bad, she could do better of course, but it tasted fine to her. "It's good, I actually like it."

"What were you thinking about?"

_About you sitting half naked next to me? How I feel like I could jump on you right now? How much I've missed spending time with you? How you eating that egg makes me like your cooking even more? How sexy you look like when you just woke up? How I can feel the slighted brush of our legs because we're sitting that close? Dear god Gary, I can't stop thinking about you!_

"Nothing important!" she said awkwardly. She prodded her egg with her fork and finally finished the entire thing, hoping Gary wouldn't question further.

Noticing that she ate his egg, he smiled proudly in return. "Now that I've cooked you breakfast, it's your turn to make dinner later tonight."

"What am I, your wife?" she sputtered.

A hand brushed away the hair from her ear, and Gary's face leaned in closer to hers. Misty stiffened up and felt the electricity paralyze her. He hovered close to her ear and she grew hot from the near contact of his lips, feeling his breath caress her earlobe.

"You wish," he whispered in an arrogant tone. He leaned back and smirked at Misty who was still blushing a bit.

She turned her head away from him, embarrassed he caught her blushing at his stupid little act. Then a thought popped up in her mind, two could play that game. She slowly got up, with the plate in her hand and walked around the table to stand in front of Gary, then bent down to his face and gave a small peck on his left cheek.

"Thanks for the meal, _husband_," she said mockingly and left his side.

Misty placed the plate into the sink and whirled around to smile at Gary, who was looking at her kind of speechless. He then merely returned her smile and finished up his egg.

They soon finished up their morning routine, and left for the lab, where Gary had to work again on the computer. Misty sat on the desk as always, playing around with her crossword puzzle. However, she wasn't really paying attention to her puzzle, as her eyes kept flickering over to Gary. He was radiating hotness ever since she returned home again, and Misty couldn't tear her eyes away from this man. She had no idea why her head was filled of nothing but Gary and his amazing looking body that she could totally ravish right now. It was as if her hormones were going crazy, and she sincerely hoped that she hadn't managed to drink one of those tonics again. Remembering what happened last time, Misty nudged Gary with her foot.

His green eyes blinked a few times, then stared at her. "What?"

"You don't have any of those estrogen tonics laying around, do you?"

He rose an eyebrow at her. "We don't have any at the moment … why do you ask?"

Misty shoved the puzzle book back in her face, hiding the slight blush on her cheeks. "No reason!" she said and hoped he wouldn't question any further than that.

Luckily, he didn't, and he returned to staring at his monitor again. Misty pretended to work on her puzzle, while she gnawed on the end of her pencil, still wondering why the hell she was so intoxicated by him. If it wasn't the tonic, then what was it? Did spending away a month from each other really make her more attracted to him? Misty glanced over and stared at his profile, and she felt the urge to touch his hair. It was so weird and crazy to be feeling like this, so all Misty could do was hide her face in embarrassment. She tried to focus on her puzzle, but it was as if Gary was radiating this magnetic field that was causing her to keep looking up at him. The urge to touch him was almost overwhelming, so she started to hum a song to calm her down.

Gary hadn't caught on her inner turmoil yet, which was a good thing, she didn't think she could survive another scene in which she tried to rape Gary again. Not that she wanted to rape him or anything, but her feelings for him felt an awful lot like the time she drunk the tonic.

Misty continued humming the song, but it wasn't really helping. She had to clench her pencil in her hand really hard to prevent her from randomly touching his hair, or his face, or anywhere really. There was something seriously wrong with her. She tried to read the first few words of her crossword puzzle, but utterly failed as the desire grew stronger.

Finally giving into that desire, she slowly inched her toes closer to his thigh. She had always sat like this, having her feet lean on his chair, so it was really easy to just poke him with her toes. Except this time, she just slowly brushed across his pants with her big toe, humming softly and pretending to be working on her crossword puzzle. It wasn't the fabric of his pants that was sending tingling sensations down her back, but the fact that there was merely a piece of cloth in her way of touching his raw skin that did the trick. Misty was weirded out by the way she was acting, but didn't show any intention of stopping her behavior.

Gary wasn't saying anything either, he'd usually tell her to quit it, but he didn't at the moment. He was either too engrossed with his research to care, or he just didn't mind. That latter part made Misty a bit more confident than she already was, and started making large sweeps across his thigh, almost going from his knee to his upper thigh. She peeped over her crossword puzzle to see if he had any sort of reaction to her actions.

He didn't look much different than normal, except his eyes were still a bit sleepy, and his lips were partly open. Misty wanted to groan out loud; how could Gary look so good when he wasn't even trying? He looked so god damn sexy, Misty wondered if it was even possible for anyone else to look as good as he did. Without trying! She pouted slightly as she continued to drag her toe across his leg, still not wanting to quit it as it was strangely addicting.

"Misty?" said Gary in a rough voice. Misty stopped in an instant, wondering if he wanted her to stop, or if he figured out that she was mentally drooling over his body. He cleared out his throat and his eyes briefly glanced over at her. "Could you get me some water?"

Oh, he just wanted some water, he didn't say anything about her strange behavior. Misty gave him a small nod and hopped off the desk, slipping her feet back into her flip-flops and walked out of the lab. It gave her a break to catch up and calm herself down, because being around Gary was so tense. She dragged her hands across her face, not knowing what to do anymore. If she were to stick around him any longer, she feared she would give in to her hormones and just do him right there.

And she had never even had a boyfriend before! All of those thoughts made Misty blush and she shook her head to keep them from invading her mind for too long. She got some tap water at the kitchen and slowly walked back, finding it somewhat scary to see him again, and on the other hand, very excited. As she stepped inside of the lab again, it only took one look at Gary's back to make her shiver on the spot. Those damn hormones. She stuck her nose up in the air and marched right over to him.

She badly wanted to lean down on his head and hold him close to her body as she placed the glass on his desk. However, Misty made it a point to avoid any sort of contact with him, she was sure it would drive her up the wall if she did manage to accidentally touch him.

"Here you go," she said in a sort of strained voice, then hopped back on the desk as usual, letting her flip-flops slip off of her feet.

Gary hadn't looked at her once since she gave him his water. He quickly gulped down most of the water, then wiped off his mouth, still staring at the screen. "Thanks."

The redhead stuffed her crossword puzzle back in her face, pretending she wasn't staring at the hot professor at all. She decided against leaning her feet on the edge of the chair this time, fearing what else might come of it. A few seconds later of stealing glances, Gary suddenly stood up straight. She looked up at him, wondering what he was going to do.

"Move, you're in the way," he said in a low voice, then bent over towards her.

Misty froze on the spot and could only watch as Gary bent over towards her, and saw his body coming alarmingly closer, his arm stretched out as if to touch her cheek. Her mind went blank when he accidentally grazed the side of her neck with the tips of his fingers as he tried to reach for the archive cabinet behind her. Misty drew back a sharp breath, then she mentally punched herself in the face—she had to pull it together!

She giggled outrageously nervous, not natural at all, then scooted over a bit so he could reach it. "Sorry, hehe," she said nervously, carefully running her hand across her neck where he had touched her. It felt warm and tingly.

Gary pulled back with a file in his hand and went to sit back down again. Misty hid her reddish cheeks behind the crossword puzzle, and didn't dare to put her feet back up to where they were before, in fear of him finding it strange or annoying. Instead she tried to fill out a few words on her puzzle, to no avail of course, since she kept sneaking glances at Gary—each time her eyes made contact with him, it made her heart beat faster, and her cheeks grow redder. She couldn't stop feeling like this, it was impossible for her to stop blushing like a little schoolgirl whenever their eyes met. Maybe she had finally ventured into insanity, and Gary was all to blame for it. Damn that hot looking professor, why did he choose today to radiate those pheromones of his?

"Hey Gary, can you come over for a second? I need your help." Tracey's voice made Misty almost jump out of her skin. It had been so quiet before with only the sound of Gary's fingers hitting the keyboard fill the room.

Gary twisted his body around to address Tracey, taking a break from his keyboard. "What is it?"

"The generator is acting wonky, can you take a look at it?"

"Fine," he said and got up, leaving Misty behind.

When they both left the room, Misty finally felt like she could breathe again. What a murderous atmosphere had filled the room before! There was literally no end to her hormones, she felt like she was about to explode if she stayed around Gary any longer, it was a good thing Tracey called him away. Misty placed her feet back up on the empty chair, a bit relieved he wasn't there to see it. When her eyes curiously glanced at his screen, something which she didn't normally do because she could never understand what exactly he was writing (he used way too many big, scientific words), she noticed something strange. She stretched her body so she could see the screen better and started to scan over the bits he had written only moments ago.

It was nothing but gibberish. Some words were heavily misspelled, some letters were repeated for 5 times in a row as if he had been pressing down the button for too long, and the grammar was like that of a 5 year old. Misty frowned at his; why was Gary writing this? Was there something wrong with him? Her eyes traveled upwards on the document, and she found even more misspellings, as well as entire blank sentences. Obviously Gary either had the mind of that of a 5 year old, or he was heavily distracted by something.

She gulped down hard as she realized what that meant; he had written the top part a few minutes ago, and the bottom part right before he left. She was with him this entire time—was she the cause of his distraction? No wait, he couldn't possibly be … feeling the same thing as she was, right? Sure her hormones were out of control and he had the body of that of a god and she wanted to just jump on him and ravish him, but she didn't think, not for a moment, that Gary could possibly be experiencing the same thing. It had to be impossible, there had to be some other reason why he was being distracted. It wasn't because she was brushing her foot against his leg or anything, that would be ridiculous. Gary was a composed young man, and her best friend at that, he wouldn't feel the same way as she was, that was simply wishful thinking. She should be ashamed of even having those kind of feelings for a friend.

Then why could she not stop thinking about it? If they were feeling the same things … why would he act as if everything was normal? They hadn't seen each other for a month, and she only got back yesterday and slept in his bed (in his arms no less), and already they were falling into their old routine. Except of course, Misty was burning with fire on the inside, and every move or action Gary made, was recorded by her watchful eyes. Every breath he took sent a chill down her spine, and everywhere he'd touch her skin it was as if lightning had struck her. He couldn't possibly be feeling the same way, could he?

A door swung open and Misty yelped out in surprise. "Hey Misty, we need your help."

Misty who was still a bit scrambled with her thoughts looked at Tracey with a huge question mark over her head.

"We're trying to fix the generator, Gary found out what it was, a broken wire—but we can't reach it since it's so small. And well," he shyly looked at the floor. "You have a very slim body, I'm sure you could fit through the opening and fix the broken wire."

She hopped off the desk, a bit unsure what exactly Tracey wanted her to do, but if they needed her help, she was going to help them.

Tracey led her to the basement where the big generator was located. She could see Gary halfway leaning into a crack of the generator, unaware that they had come back. Misty tore her eyes away from his behind and tried to focus her attention to Tracey, who had started to ramble about something.

"Alright Misty, see that crack?" said Tracey as he pointed at the back of the generator.

The machine was big and lumpy, but there was indeed a space to crawl through, but its shape was very irregular and very small, Misty wasn't so sure if she could fit through it. Tracey then bent down and pointed at a loose blue wire hanging in the middle of the opening, but it was too far for them to reach.

"That's the wire we need. If you could get in there, then we could tell you how to fix it. Here, take this tool," he said and handed her over something that looked like a wire stripping tool.

"Are you sure you can fit in the hole?" asked Gary who was suddenly behind her.

The hairs on her neck stood up straight and she spun around a bit surprised and embarrassed that he could have this kind of effect on her. She clenched the tool in her hands and kept it behind her, acting as if he had just caught her in something suspicious.

"Are you calling me fat?" she said, not really caring what she was saying since her mind went blank again. Stupid Gary, he appeared out of nowhere.

"Well," he said in that sexy voice of his. His green eyes traveled from her toes, to her waist, to her face—and Misty felt every second of his gaze piercing right through her. Dear god, _it was turning her on_ having him look at her like that! "While you have a pretty skinny build, you have a rather large ass. You'll easily get stuck."

Misty could only comprehend 'large' and 'ass' and couldn't give a damn what Gary was saying anymore and simply nodded her head like a mindless zombie. The way he had his hands in his lab coat, and his shoulder leaning against the generator, causing his head to tilt away from it, exposing some of his neck which was partly covered by his chestnut hair—it was a sight that took her breath away and tinge her cheeks red.

"Misty, are you alright? Is it too hot in here?" asked Tracey, whom she had totally forgotten was there.

Misty whirled around and fanned her face with one of her hands to take off some of the heat on her cheeks and gave the black haired boy a sheepish smile. "Y-yeah, it is pretty hot in here."

"I know, the generator is malfunctioning and going into overdrive, making it pretty damn hot down here."

Misty shot a look over at Gary who hadn't moved from his instant-kill pose. _You got that damn right, Tracey, it is pretty damn hot down here._

"Can you try to get in?" asked Tracey.

The redhead finally dared to turn away from the brunette, and she simply started to try and push herself through the small crack. With the tool in her hand, it was hard to balance right and maneuver her body around the irregular metal parts. Soon she was halfway in, and she reached out to the loose hanging blue wire in the middle, but her fingers couldn't reach it, it was still too far. Unfortunately, the lower half of her body was still on the outside of the generator, which was preventing her from entering the area entirely. She tried to pull herself through the metal, and felt her thighs and butt roughly getting pulled along. Misty had to admit; she had a pretty large ass, and it was certainly showing now seeing as she was almost getting stuck because of it.

"I guess this is the part where I tell you … I told you so," she heard Gary's wavering voice say, as if he was about to burst into laughter.

Misty's cheeks burned with embarrassment as the truth hit her dead on; her ass was stuck in between the opening, not letting her go in or out. What was worse, was that Gary had a very nice view of her ass being stuck outside the generator. Just knowing that he was watching her from behind like that was enough to turn her face entirely red as well as her ears.

"Shut up!" she called out with a broken voice. "Just give me a little push, I'll get in!"

She heard some movement on the outside, Gary was probably going to take up on her word and forcefully push her in. Now that she had a few seconds to reflect on that, Misty realized how perverted it really was.

"Alright then, don't complain if it hurts."

She started to panic a bit; she didn't want Gary pushing her ass—not when she was in such a state! It would only send her mind over the edge and she would stop functioning normally! Alas, before she could cry out to tell Tracey to do it instead, she heard Gary's voice say 'ready?' before he placed the palm of her hand on her butt. Misty felt herself turn into stone, and her face was about to explode from all the blood that was flowing through it. His hand, was on her left butt cheek, firmly cupping it and it felt oh so good, but oh so bad. This was way too erotic for her tastes.

"I'm gonna push now," he said as he placed _another_ hand on her ass.

_Well, fuck me!_ Misty started screaming curse words in her mind, only able to think of Gary doing her from behind, especially when he asked her if she was 'ready' and he was going to 'push'. Oh god, she had turned into a mega pervert!

"Just do it already!" she hissed out at him, wanting him to stop touching her like that already. He had no idea what kind of power he had over her, absolutely no idea at all. If he knew, then he would be the biggest jackass in the world to toy around with her like that. No way could he have known Misty was filled with perverted fantasies as she felt his hips grind into her ass.

Within a second, Misty was pushed inside and she stumbled forward, almost crashing into the other end of the generator, but managed to stop herself in time before that happened. Now that she was completely inside of it, with wires hanging around everywhere, Misty finally noticed how hot it was in there. Good, at least she had an excuse why her head resembled a tomato.

"Okay, see that blue wire hanging there?" asked Gary as he peered through the crack with his head.

Misty shyly looked up at him, afraid he could tell she was blushing like crazy. Then she noticed his cheeks were slightly red as well, and sighed in relief knowing that his were red from the heat, and she could use this as an excuse. To emphasize this, she cleared out her throat loudly.

"Crap, it's really hot in here!" she complained, hoping Gary would take this as an explanation why her face was on fire.

He gave her an annoyed look, which only succeeded in him looking very attractive with a slight blush on his cheeks, his eyebrows pulled into a frown, and his lips into a scowl. It made him look like he was definitely enjoying … something … Misty quickly turned her head away from him to stop her rambling thoughts and looked at the loose wire.

"Use that tool to strip both ends of the wire."

Misty followed his command and stripped the ends of the blue wire to reveal all these colourful wires underneath it. She had no idea what to do with them, so she awaited further instruction from the pokemon Professor.

"Then simply connect the wires together so that the colours match up, that's it."

"Okay, doesn't seem that hard," she said with a small smile. At least when her mind was focused on something, she could ignore Gary's stare on her.

She slowly connected the copper wires together, making sure the colours were all correct, there were about a dozen of them so it took her about two minutes to finish it up. As she connected the last two wires, she nodded her head at it, satisfied with the result and gave Gary a thumbs up.

"Tracey, try it now," said Gary as he finally pulled his head out of the opening.

Tracey did something on the outside of the generator and she heard the machine make a very loud windy noise, and she could feel air circulate around her, a breath of fresh air so to speak!

"Yes, it works again! Thanks a lot Misty!" he called out at her.

"Great, now get out of there, it's actually pretty dangerous," said Gary as he held out a hand through the crack so he could pull her out.

Misty was once again in fantasizing land as her blue eyes landed on his bony fingers. She stretched out her own hand, hesitantly, and felt herself shiver when her fingers touched the palm of his hand. His fingers closed around hers, and he gently pulled her forwards so she could get through the opening. Misty bent her body in every way imaginable to crawl through the place, and finally managed to get the upper half of her body to come out. Except of course, the rest of hers was still stuck behind in the generator. Gary's hold on her hand tightened, and he gave her a wide smirk—god only knows that he had in mind.

He gave a hard yank on her arm, and Misty was squished through the opening in one go, and was launched forwards, crashing into Gary and almost making him fall down. Her face was pressed up against his chest, and Misty couldn't do anything but inhale his scent as her nose brushed up against his black shirt. However, Gary abruptly placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her away from him.

"Good, you fixed it, let's go back," he said in a toneless voice. Before she could even look at his face, the brunette quickly turned around and left the generator room, with his lab coat swishing behind him with each fast step he took.

That was kind of rude. "Hey Tracey, have you noticed Gary's been acting a bit weird today?" she asked, wondering if it wasn't just her who saw Gary be so … there wasn't really a word to describe it.

Tracey walked up next to her. "No, not really. Though if he's acting different, it's because you're back."

Misty looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

"I'm sure he's just happy to see you."

Misty's mind was flooded with perverted thoughts as that sentence could be taken to a whole other level of 'happy to see you'. She had to prevent herself from giggling out loud as she imagined herself pressing up against Gary and asking; 'Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?'. She was too cruel on herself, and unsuspecting Gary—though she did have to smile at the fact that he was happy to see her for real. It was nice hearing it from a third party who could see it in an objective way.

"Let's go back, Trace," she said with a smile, and they both exited the room.

When Gary wasn't at his usual place at the computer, Misty left Tracey alone as she searched through the complex for the brunette. He couldn't hide from her, not when she had an internal radar going off every time she was near him. It didn't take long for her to find him, seeing as he almost bumped into her when he came out of the bathroom. It was uncharacteristic of her, especially since she was overwhelmed by all these different kinds of emotions, but Misty managed to fling her arms around his neck and pull herself closer, her body melding into his. Her face was only a few inches away from his, a closeness that made her very weak in the knees.

"So," she said with a sly smile. Her eyes met up with his surprised ones, he was definitely startled by this sudden action. "I heard from Tracey that you're happy to see me."

Her heart was beating really fast in her throat, and she had no idea how her voice managed to come out so perfectly normal without it cracking up or stuttering incoherently. Their faces were really close, so close that his breath was hitting her cheeks and making her shiver, it was a miracle she hadn't passed out from the pleasurable feeling she got by being able to touch him so directly. Even her hands that were on the back of his neck, she didn't dare move them in fear of causing herself to fall down to her knees.

Green eyes stared at her bewildered for a few seconds, very long and silent seconds. He was definitely caught of guard. It was almost like she had managed to paralyze him, a fact that made her wonder if she was really the only one feeling like this. With the way his lips were parted so he could speak, but never did, and how utterly frozen he was on the spot, it seemed that maybe—just _maybe_, she wasn't alone. Maybe she was driving Gary as nuts as he was her.

Breath escaped from her mouth as she felt Gary wrap his arms around her waist, and he bent his head down on her shoulder and pulled her even closer. The warmth of his body was like a gentle blanket covering her skin and she felt herself relax in his arms and simply enjoyed the feeling, not even daring to think straight anymore. Her face was buried against his shoulder, and his was resting on her own, they stayed that way without saying a word. Misty started to shiver a bit as the feelings grew more intense by the second, no doubt Gary had picked up on that by now.

"I am," he finally spoke, her hair slightly moving because of his breath. "I missed you." Those words gave way to her knees, and she trembled to stay balanced on her feet, but to no avail and simply hoped Gary would keep her upright.

The firm grip on her waist fortunately did keep her upright, so now she had half her face pressed up against his chest so she could hear his heart beating very fast. Her heart was beating as fast as his, maybe even faster, but combined with his soothing words and his heartbeat, Misty had said goodbye to her soul as she realized Gary now had full control over her. Everything he did made her swoon, every sweet little word he would utter would cause her heart to either beat faster or stop completely. Misty simply enjoyed the ever changing experience of her feelings, and tightened her hold on his neck; she didn't want to let go of him.

"I missed you a lot too," she managed to mumble into his chest. His heartbeat sped up and pounded in her ears, she felt it vibrate through her body, he could probably feel hers as well, since it was going crazy inside of her chest. Crazy for him that is. Fuck, she wasn't even going to fight it anymore, to hell with it—she was going to enjoy every single second that she was in his arms, and would make no move to get away from him.

Except of course, when he moved away first. His arms slipped away from her waist, and he pulled away, simultaneously pulling her back into reality. Misty diverted her face away from him and let him go, completely embarrassed that she had wanted to continue holding him like that, and thinking he wanted it too. Who was she kidding? This was Gary, he couldn't possibly feel the same as her, was she deluded or something?

When her eyes sneaked a peak at his face, a shiver went through her body as his facial expression matched hers; red cheeks, half-open eyes that were avoiding her gaze, and his eyebrows pulled into a frown. He cleared out his throat, then slowly turned around, as if he didn't want to look at her.

"Let's go back," he said in a gentle voice.

Was she crazy? Was she crazy to hold onto that little bit of hope that he felt the same way? She couldn't be making up those expressions of his, those expressions that sent her into ecstasy and she couldn't look away, not even if she tried. Gary started to walk away, and Misty quickly stumbled after him, not wanting to be separated from him. Her eyes rested on his hand that was dangling beside his hips, and she couldn't stop thinking about it. She was crazy about him at the moment, that was something she simply couldn't deny—but was Gary the same way? Was she arrogant to think he wanted it every bit as much as she did?

How did they even manage to act normal before all this? Before, she could casually touch him whenever she wanted and it didn't feel weird, forced, or any other weird emotion—it felt _right_. This time, it seemed it was impossible to act natural like before, because every touch was driving her nuts, and it was making her long for more. She desperately wanted to touch him, and not let go—so almost on instinct, Misty slipped her hand into his, and intertwined their fingers. She wanted him.

If Gary didn't feel the same way, he would pull his hand back so fast as if she had burned him, so Misty awaited his reaction in anticipation while not trying to break into a huge crooked smile because she was holding his hand. How many times had she done something like this before? Linking his arm with hers, holding his hands—acts that seemed were done ages ago, almost foreign to her.

Gary's head slowly turned as his green eyes landed on her hand that was intertwined with his. He made no move aside from continuing to walk ahead, it was slowly driving her mad. He then tilted up his head and stared into her eyes. She felt embarrassed but happy, and gave him a bashful smile, a smile that was letting him know she wasn't going to let go. When Gary quickly whipped his head away from her, opting to stare at the floor, she managed to catch his reddening cheeks in a split moment. His hand finally reacted, which wrapped tighter around her fingers, while his other hand was mostly trying to hide his own face. It was the most adorable Gary moment she'd ever seen in her life, she wished she could relive this moment forever.

Misty didn't know what to do at the moment, but one thing was for sure; she could die happily now.

Though the moment was short lived as they reached the laboratory, Gary finally let go of her hand and stepped inside. They went back to their normal routine, like nothing had happened before—but her red cheeks told everything. He sat down at his desk, already typing on his keyboard the moment he did. Misty hopped on the desk and made very serious efforts of concentrating on her crossword puzzle, and to stop thinking about Gary.

It had been hours when Gary finally told her he was done with work and they could go home.

"So, about that dinner," he said with a smirk.

Misty gave him a smile in return; she hadn't forgotten about that. "First let's see what you have in your refrigerator."

They walked back to his house while it was dark outside, it was also pretty cold. Misty rubbed her arms up and down since she wasn't wearing a shirt with long sleeves.

"Cold?" asked Gary as he stared at her arms.

"No, not at all," she said sarcastically.

"I think you can hold it until we're there," he said with a chuckle.

Misty was about to retort when her body was slammed against his. His arm was thrown around her shoulder and keeping her steady against his side. Immediately she felt her body warming up for different reasons entirely. She had been doing so well for hours—then he had to go ahead and touch her so romantically that swept her off her feet and made her all crazy for him again. Damn that Gary Oak, it's like he knew exactly what to do. Luckily for her, he really didn't live that far, and within a minute, they were at his house.

"Alright, let's see what I can make for dinner," she said with a smile as she skipped over to the kitchen.

"Hey," Gary called out at her. She turned around to face him.

"Here, I forgot to give it to you." A small box was tossed into her hands.

Misty lifted up her eyebrows and looked at the box, it was gift wrapped in blue with a white bow tied around. She smiled as she started to unwrap it immediately. She lifted the lid from the box, and inside was a small bracelet made out of sea shells. Misty picked it up delicately, making sure she wouldn't break it, then dangled it in front of her face. Gary hadn't lied when he said he'd make her another one, it seemed he actually took the effort in creating her another one of these bracelets. It was this sort of gesture that made Misty even more happy than she already was, so she flung her arms around his neck and jumped into his chest.

"I love it!" she cried out happily.

Gary caught her as he stumbled backwards for a bit, then steadied the both of them. "You're … welcome," he said a bit startled.

Misty had to force herself to let Gary go, since all she wanted to do was stay like that, and leaned back. She then placed the bracelet in Gary's hands.

"Put it on for me," she said and stuck out her wrist.

Gary gave her his trademark smirk, one that sent chills down her spine. He took a step closer and gently took her wrist in his hand. The feeling of him touching her like that felt like she was rubbing her face on a pillow made out of silk, and she could do that all day long. He slowly wrapped the bracelet around her thin wrist, and locked the ends together. Misty retrieved her wrist and looked at it with a wide smile.

"Thanks!"

The brunette quickly turned his face away, covering it with his hand again. Misty couldn't help herself as she tried to pry his hand away from his face, she wanted to tease him relentlessly for even being so shy around her.

"Look at you, you're blushing!" she said with a laugh as she kept trying to get Gary to move his hand out of his face.

He dodged her multiple attempts and glared at her. "Am not!" he denied vigorously.

Misty bit her lip, then saw an opening and quickly grabbed his hand with both of hers, and pulled it down so that she was now staring into his green eyes. His face was red, and it seemed to be getting redder by the second. It might had have something to do with Misty staring at him with big, wide eyes.

"Aww, you totally are," she said with a sigh.

Gary jerked his hand out of hers, then backed off a few steps. "So what! You are too!"

Misty's hands flew up to her cheeks, she hadn't even noticed they were burning this much. She was just so excited to see Gary's bashful face that she totally forgot her own. The redhead shook her face, then let out a nervous giggle, not knowing what to say or do. Neither did Gary, as he was standing there, staring at the floor as well.

"Well then, I'll go make some food!" she exclaimed hurriedly, then quickly dashed away from him.

That was so embarrassing, weird and awkward. In fact, what the heck was that all about? Why where they both blushing like mad? Misty threw a glance over her shoulder as she heard Gary shuffle into the kitchen. He was sitting down at the table like always, and his cheeks were still red from before. Then again, so were hers. As she tried to ignore Gary's piercing stare in her back, Misty fumbled around trying to look for something to make. When she noticed some pasta and some tomato paste cans in one of his cupboards, she decided to make spaghetti in the spur of the moment.

She quietly went to work, all the while trying so hard to ignore the fact that Gary was watching her every move. When she started to make the sauce, he suddenly appeared next to her. Misty's mind went blank and she tried tot hink of something to say, except Gary managed to do so first.

"Spaghetti, how typical of you," he said with a soft voice. His shoulder brushed against hers and she jerked away in response. He looked at her with his eyebrows raised, then gave her a smirk. _He knew_—Gary definitely knew. Misty's face was slowly turning red again and she was yelling inside of her head to calm down and ignore him. To prove to him she wasn't a bumbling idiot around him, she concentrated on her tomato sauce, which she stirred with a wooden spoon.

When she noticed that Gary was about to turn away, she pulled his sleeve, causing him to halt and look at her.

She lifted up the spoon, and brought it up to his face, with her hand hovering beneath it so that the sauce wouldn't fall on the ground. Gary's eyes glanced at the spoon, then looked at her with a serious expression.

"Well, try it," she said impatiently. Misty was trying very hard to control herself so she wouldn't fling away the spoon and launch herself at him, not when he was looking at her like that.

Gary then placed his hand on top of hers, and forced her to bring the spoon closer to his face. He bent down, his eyes never leaving her, and parted his lips so he could suck off the sauce from the spoon in a very sensual way. Misty's eyes felt droopy and her legs felt like jelly, he was doing this on purpose, wasn't he? His hand finally released hers and he swallowed the sauce, turning away from her.

"Tastes good," he said with a small cough.

He was definitely doing this on purpose, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he was teasing her, because he finally realized he had power over her. Misty's face was flushed, even though she knew he was just messing with her—but she could do the same thing to him as well. She wasn't blind either, so she kept herself from smirking as she tried to think of something that she could pay him back with.

Gary went to sit back down at the table and this time, patiently waiting for her to finish the spaghetti. They were both silent, which lasted for about twenty minutes until she was finally done and placing the food on a plate for the both of them. She turned around with the plates in her hand and walked over to the table, her hips swaying from left and right in a very exaggerated way. Misty had to keep herself from smirking in triumph when she noticed Gary's eyes were glued on her hips. She proudly placed the plates down on the table, then took a seat next to him on the bench.

"Here you go," she said with a small smile.

"Thanks," was all he managed to say. Gary took his fork and swirled his spaghetti around it, the steam was steadily emerging from it, then lifted it up and brought it to his face.

"No wait, let me blow on it," said Misty and seized the opportunity to pay back all the gestures he had been doing that were driving her crazy. Misty leaned forward, until her face was positioned in front of his fork, which were barely touching his lips since he was about to eat it.

She pursed her lips, and gently blew on the heap of spaghetti wrapped around the fork, and she made sure to stare straight into his eyes when she did this. He did exactly what she hoped he would do, he stared right back at her, as if frozen on the spot, and his cheeks were starting to fill up with blood. Misty's own face was gradually getting redder, since they were very close to each other. She blew on it a couple of more times before she finally closed her lips and gave him a tiny smile.

"There, it's safe to eat."

While she had meant for this to tease him, Misty suddenly found herself not wanting to leave this close proximity with each other. Gary was still frozen, but he didn't seem to want her to leave either, still staring at her with those half-open eyes of his. When she saw his face move forward only by a centimeter and putting the fork down, Misty slowly started to lean in as well, fluttering her eyes closed and licking her lips as she did so.

After all this sexual tension between them the entire day, was it finally going to happen? Was the teasing and innocent touching going to stop, and were they finally going to cross that line? Those were thoughts that ran through her mind as she felt herself zoning in on his face in slow motion. Their lips were seriously only a few millimeters apart when Gary decided to speak up.

"Misty?" he asked, his lips barely managing to not brush against her as he spoke. Misty was only half listening, but restrained herself from planting her lips on his.

"Hmm?" she said in response. They were so close—sooooo close. Why'd he have to stop?

Misty finally cracked open her eyes again, looking at him cross-eyed because of the closeness. He seemed to struggle to get some words out, and Misty briefly contemplated shutting him up and doing it already.

"C-can I?" he asked unsure.

Gary needn't say no more, Misty finally pushed herself those extra few millimeters and their lips finally connected. Both of them drew back a breath as they held it in while their lips were squished up against each other. Her mind had officially shut down; reason and logic was thrown out the window, and overcome by passion and instinct. She could barely even remember what he had said to her moments ago when her heart felt like it was on fire (not to mention her face). She sucked his lips hard, cupping his face with her hands to pull him closer to her. They briefly separated from each other, a trail of saliva stretching out that was connected to both of their lips. Her breathing had sped up in so little time, as if she had been running and out of breath for a while now.

It was Gary who leaned in this time, his arms going around her back and pulling her into his lap as he locked lips with her hard. He stole her breath when she felt his lips on her again, it was as if lightning has struck her on the spot. His wet lips slid across hers, pulling down her bottom lip and she sighed softly once her lips were forced to part. Her fingers dug into his cheeks, overcome with pleasurable feelings that exploded everywhere inside of her. Misty roughly pushed her lips on his as well, sucking them hard, managing to suck out his breath as well. She was shivering badly, shivering with pleasure that is. They moved their lips against each other, inexperienced and on instinct, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. She never wanted this to stop, this was something she had been wanting to do ever since she came back.

They were breathing hard through their noses, sometimes through their mouths as they opened it to take a quick breath, but then closed them again so they could kiss each other once more. Gary's hands were running up and down her back, holding her close to him at the same time, while Misty had her fingers crawling through his spiky hair. His lips were so delicious, so wet and warm, but also very soft. She had no idea how good it would feel with his lips pressed against her, but now that she knew, she couldn't get enough of it. They kissed each other hard, as if the opportunity would never come to them like this again, so they had to enjoy this as much as possible.

Misty parted their lips for a second, so she could stare at his gorgeous face. The face that looked like he had just been attacked, but was feeling so good he could care less about the way he looked like. Gary placed a hand behind her head, then pushed her towards him and their lips crashed against each other, hungry for more. Misty crawled up on the bench, her knees now resting on it so she could get closer to him, while Gary was being backed up in the corner, not minding it at all. She crawled over him, not daring to break their passionate kiss, while Gary's hands traveled down to her ass, rubbing it as he did with her back, then slid his hands across her back again, then back to her ass.

She moved a bit closer to him to get in a more comfortable position, but unfortunately, she managed to knock her elbow against the table, causing the plate full of hot spaghetti to land on the both of them.

"Aye, hot, hot!" cried out Misty as she jumped off of the bench and pulling the spaghetti off of her arms. Gary was doing the same thing, since most of it landed on his shirt.

"Fuck, that's really hot!" he wailed in pain, then quickly took off his shirt and threw it on the ground.

Misty stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes widened when she saw Gary's naked chest. This was too much for her; was he trying to give her a heart attack, or a permanent nosebleed? Especially since they were so grossly engaged in battling with their lips. Misty's face went bright red as the reality of what they had just done finally weighed down on her. She had kissed Gary.

Gary started to suddenly feel self conscious about himself, then awkwardly bent his head down and picked up the plate from the floor, putting it back on the table. He avoided looking at her, and so did she.

"You know what, I'm not really hungry. I think I'm gonna go to bed."

Misty frowned and felt a bit sad. The truth was, she wasn't hungry either, all she wanted to do was continue touching him like before. In fact, she really—really wanted to do this, so she followed him to his bedroom.

Gary turned around and stared at her weirdly, which came across as a shy look since his face kept getting red whenever he saw her. "What are you doing?" he asked, or rather, demanded.

Misty then finally stood her ground. "Look, I'm not gonna talk about what just happened, but right now. I want to be with you." Misty kicked off her shoes, then crawled underneath his blanket in a stubborn way. "I won't allow you to go to bed without me."

Gary scratched the back of his head, then sighed, but crawled into the bed as well, laying down next to her. His green eyes stared into her own, as if he was trying to figure out why she was acting like this. Hell, even Misty herself didn't know what made her jump into bed with Gary. She wanted to, that's all.

"As long as you don't hog all of the blanket."

"Well," she started and pushed herself up against Gary's half naked body. "If we stay like this, we don't have to worry about who's going to get most of the blanket share." She looked up at his face and smiled innocently at him. Or at least, as innocent as she could manage, because this definitely wasn't innocent.

Gary sighed a bit, but he managed to wrap his arm around her waist, holding her close to him. He laid his head into the nook of her neck, slowly breathing in her scent. Misty was far too awake to be able to go to bed right now, especially since she was in bed with Gary—and he was holding her, _right after they had just kissed_.

"Hmm, well this is weird," he said a bit unsure.

Misty wormed her arms around him as well, then squished her face against his chest. "I don't particularly care."

**oOo**

**Backstory:** it's the morning after the previous scene.

Waking up next to Gary really had its perks. For one, it felt very warm in bed, so warm that she felt like she could never climb out of bed, even if she tried. Two, snuggling close to him felt very, very good. Three, he didn't seem to object to Misty snuggling her face into his chest, while her arm was around his waist. In fact, Gary's response was to put his head on top of hers, and pull her in closer with his arm, so they were effectively holding each other.

"Morning," she whispered softly, then let her hands run over his back.

"Mornin'," he whispered back hotly.

Her fingers fluttered over his backside, feeling his bones pop out, and the muscles surrounding it. Misty was still intoxicated with Gary, especially since she woke up in an embrace with him, so she couldn't help herself but continue to explore his body with her hands. In return, Gary moved his hand over her back as well, which made her snuggle her face into his neck, savoring the feeling. Thoughts such as what she was doing, and why, never once entered her mind. She was focused on Gary's body pressed up against her, and his hand rubbing her back, and the way his neck seemed so vulnerable for her to attack. Unconsciously her feet started to rub against his more manlier and bigger ones. His neck started to look more and more attractive to her, so Misty pulled away a bit to look up at his face.

She had never seen such a look on his face before; it was really relaxed, with his eyes half open, his lips parted and his cheeks slightly tinted with red. It was so different than his usual expression, which made Misty want to touch his face. She brought her hand up to his face and let her fingers trail down his cheek. He closed his green eyes and leaned in closer to her hand. Misty was simply mesmerized by his expression, as well as his hands clutching onto her back. Her eyes stared at his lips, which were lush and red, and she felt the urge to rub her thumb over it, so she did. Green eyes opened and stared at her with raw intensity as she slightly pulled his bottom lip down with the tip of her thumb. Unconsciously, she licked her lips while she stared at his own. She felt his fingers on her back pressing harder onto her skin, which felt really good. So good in fact, it made Misty breathe out loudly. That was all there was needed for Gary to lower his face to hers, his lips now hovering only an inch apart from her own. Hot breath hit her lips, but he never moved an inch closer than that, as if he was waiting for her to make the first move. Misty then took the plunge and quickly pressed her lips against his, because she really wanted to at the moment. She needed to kiss him.

She remembered it now; the feeling of Gary's lips on her own. She had kissed him forcefully, when he didn't want to be kissed, and thus pushed her away, not giving her enough time to get used to the feeling of his lips. Only now did she understood how good his lips felt against her. Slightly moist, thick and hot—and it was sending strange vibrations down her body. Misty pressed her body up against him even more, deepening the kiss with him, while Gary now brought his other hand behind her head, so he could bring her face closer to his. Gary then parted with her lips for a second, and they both inhaled sharp breaths, and Misty crashed her lips on his again to continue their make-out.

Misty had no idea what she was doing, since it was all running on instinct and pure emotions. Any rational thought that might have been in the back of her mind were soon destroyed completely when she felt Gary slip his tongue inside of her mouth. Having never French kissed before, Misty wasn't quite sure what to do, until she felt his tongue brush against her, and her body jerked in response of the pleasure. Gary's tongue then swept across hers several times, and she moaned loudly in his mouth, causing him to do the same. Her body started to shiver ever so slightly, and she couldn't stop rubbing her legs against his own. Misty made circles around his tongue with hers, enjoying the feeling she was getting from it. Gary then finally pulled his tongue out of her mouth, leaving behind a slight trail of saliva. She stared at him with glazed eyes, panting loudly, and so was he.

They stared at each other for minutes long, both not moving. How could one move after experiencing such a thing anyways? Misty could only continue to stare in his green eyes, while her hand was now intertwined with his, resting in between them. The longer they stared at each other, the more aware Misty become of herself. She suddenly started to notice the heat radiating from her cheeks; no doubt a massive blush residing on her them. The second thing she noticed was how wet she had become, and how she had unconsciously tried to rub herself against his leg. Though this might have embarrassed her till no end, for some reason, Misty felt quite at ease. Being around Gary and making out with him felt like heaven on earth—it felt right. Gary started to play with her fingers, but never averted his gaze from her, and neither did she.

After a while of staring at each other in silence, Gary finally spoke up. "That was certainly the best wake-up call I've ever experienced."

Misty chuckled and squeezed his hand in return. "Still think it was a bad idea I came to sleep in your bed?" she asked in a sweet voice.

The brunette smirked in return. "I don't know—why don't you convince me some more?"

Seeing that sexy smirk on his face, while his eyes still held the same spark as before, Misty lunged for him and started to kiss him again. Fire sparked between them in a mess of hot breath and sweat. They kissed hard and long, each sucking the breath out of the other. They would have continued if there hadn't been a sudden knock to his front door. Misty immediately pulled away from Gary and she hid herself under the blanket; not wanting anyone to find her in Gary's bed. Gary threw himself out of the bed and quickly pulled on some pants and a shirt as he went to see who was at the front door.

Misty was left alone in the room and she pulled the blanket off of her. She could hear Gary talking to someone, probably Tracey, but it was too soft and muffled for her to understand what they were saying. The redhead stared at the ceiling, remembering what happened only moments ago. Gary's lips were on hers, his hands were running all over her body—and she had enjoyed it to the max. It took her a while before it sunk into her mind; she had kissed Gary, they were in the middle of a make-out session that could have lead to who knows where if they continued. Misty knew she had a crush on Gary, but this felt like something so much more. A longing, a lust, she was yearning for him now. She had missed him tremendously when she was away for that one month, so she was overcome with the feeling of wanting to touch him everywhere and make sure he was real, and with her. It seemed he had felt the same way; he wouldn't have continued to kiss her like that either.

Suddenly the front door closed and the house was quiet, Misty was pulled out of her thoughts and she wondered if Gary had left without telling her. Alright, he couldn't very well let anyone know she was in his bed, horny as hell and wanting to do it all over again. The girl pressed the palm of her hand against her face as she thought about her previous actions.

"I kissed Gary Oak," she said with a groan. She then turned over on her stomach and buried her face within his pillow. "Oh god I kissed him!"

**oOo**

**Backstory:** direct continuation of the previous scene.

Misty had never wanted something so badly before in her life. Her cyan eyes continued to glare a hole through Tracey's skull while he worked on some sort of machine in the lab. Why in the world had the numbskull decided to work down on the lab with Gary? Why couldn't he piss off to who knows where so she could be alone with Gary and continue where they left off this morning? Misty sighed and finally tore her eyes away from Tracey—it wasn't like he was doing it on purpose. She then walked up behind Gary, who was working on the computer once more, typing some data on the keyboard. He visibly tensed up his shoulders when she hovered her face closer to him, sticking her head out in front of his. Oh how she wanted to touch him, and kiss him, and do all sorts of things with him.

Misty gave another death glare at Tracey who was innocently walking around. "Stupid Tracey," she mumbled under her breath, but Gary caught it and snorted loudly in response.

She lay her chin on his head, breathing in the smell of his hair. It smelled just like it did this morning, when it was driving her mad. She wondered if Gary was thinking the same; was it driving him nuts as well? Did she hold the same power over him as he did over her? Having him this close again, it made her mind go blank and not think about anyone else but him. Her heart was going pretty fast and it was filling her up with a warm feeling. Without even thinking about it, she had lightly wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled closer to him. This caused Gary to finally stop typing and he leaned back in her arms, now completely relaxed.

Within half a second she had her arms near her side and she was standing a foot away from Gary when she noticed Tracey had turned in their direction. She cursed him in a million different ways for interrupting their alone time, and especially since Gary didn't seem to mind at all! Misty let out a loud humph at Tracey, who looked up at her with confused eyes.

"What?" he asked, noticing the tension in the air.

"Nothing," said Misty, trying to keep her annoyance out of her voice.

Gary pretended he didn't hear anything and was typing away on his keyboard.

Tracey simply shrugged and went back to working on the same machine again, his back turned towards them once more. Seeing that he was busy, Misty tip-toed closer to Gary again, while the brunette kept a close eye on her, but still staring at his computer screen. Once more she was standing behind him and she let her arms fall around his shoulders and neck, and she nuzzled her face on the right side of his neck. She smelt a hint of sweat and his own scent, and it was seriously clouding her thoughts. Gary had stopped typing yet again, and he slightly tilted his head to the left, so she could have more space to lay her face down on his neck. Misty eyed the delicate flesh of his neck, and before she even knew it, she had her lips softly brushing against it. Gary shuddered and she felt his brown spikes touch her face, which for some reason, excited her. She was about to crush her lips on his neck for real and suck the daylights out of him, when Tracey turned around again.

It was Gary who stood up this time, slipping out of Misty's hold on him. "I'm going to get some files," he said loudly, mostly directed at Tracey.

Tracey simply raised his eyebrows; wondering what was going on. Gary then pushed his chair back under the desk and left the lab.

"He said he's getting some files!" proclaimed Misty loudly with a nervous chuckle.

It didn't take longer than a second for Misty to follow him, hastily trying to catch up to him. Misty pushed the doors open but there was no sign of Gary to be found. Misty racked her brain; where did he go? He said something about files—so that must mean he went to the archives closet. Filled with determination, Misty made her way over to the lone door that stood in the wall, with a sign on it saying 'Archives'. She turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Before she could even step one foot inside, someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her in, closing the door behind her. She crashed against Gary Oak's chest, and she knew exactly what he wanted. His arms quickly wrapped around her waist and he pulled her closer to him, so that they both crashed against a rack of files. Misty brought her arms around his neck and their lips finally met. Never before had she felt the longing of feeling his lips on her, of needing to have him on her—until now that is. Their kisses were hot and saliva was now dripping down their lips. Gary grunted loudly and once more slammed his lips against her, then dipped his tongue inside of her. Misty welcomed his tongue like no other and toyed around with it. There were so many nerves on her tongue that he was touching, it was driving her mad. Misty's body trembled and she grinded against him, moaning loudly in his mouth. She could feel Gary's body shaking as well, which made it all the more exciting for her.

A yank of her hair tore her face away from his. She yelped in response, and was about to yell at him for pulling her hair when she felt his lips sucking down on her neck. Her insult turned into a loud gasp as she tried to find a way to breathe again. Electricity fired through her body, all originating from Gary's lips on her neck. He sucked hard and Misty's knees buckled against him, almost helplessly falling against him in the process. She panted loudly and leaned her face to the side so he could have more access to her neck. Her hands were on the back of his neck, massaging the bottom of his scalp, but also pushing him into her neck, because the feeling of him sucking her neck was overwhelmingly good. He left a trail of kisses, going from her collarbone towards her ear and Misty hissed in pleasure. As a reflex, she grinded her body into his again, this time noticing something different in his pants. Misty had to smirk at this, but it's not like she wasn't heavily tuned on by all of this either. The redhead then brought up her knee so that it brushed against his leg, and she rested it on one of the racks behind them. This supported her a bit more so that she could stand a bit taller and reach him more easily, as well as grind her hips into his, feeling the hard object in his pants throb in enthusiasm.

Gary switched sides of her neck and sucked her neck on a different spot. Misty's body trembled against him and she used her hands to rub his back and hold him close. She slipped her hands underneath his shirt, feeling his hot skin with her fingertips. She let her hands run across his naked back, while he kept kissing different spots on her neck. Misty then pulled away a little and grabbed his head with her hands, bringing it to her face so that she could kiss him again. Hungry for her lips, he eagerly replied to her request, and they were once again in a battle of tongues with each other. It was getting harder and harder to breathe like this, but Misty couldn't care less. This felt fucking awesome. She heard Gary moan softly a few times, which really excited her and she wanted to hear him moan more. To achieve this, Misty grinded into him again, making sure to rub herself against his hard penis that was slightly protruding from his pants. Gary made a weird sound that came from the back of his throat, but it was unmistakably a moan. She would have smiled at this, if it weren't for the fact that she was happily brushing around his tongue in his mouth with her own tongue.

Gary's hands wandered over her body, and she let him touch her wherever he wanted, because it didn't matter where he touched her, since it all felt great to her anyways. When she felt his hands making way for her chest, Misty felt herself feeling more hot. She kissed him harder, and one of his hands finally stroked over her breast.

And suddenly, it all stopped.

"Someone's coming," he hissed loudly in his sexy voice.

Misty's eyes widened and she frantically looked around. Gary then pushed her to the back of the other racks and she quietly hid in a dark corner. The door finally opened, reveling Professor Oak. Misty blushed heavily; they were interrupted by his grandfather. Misty couldn't help but want to return with what they were doing really fast. She was so into Gary at the moment, all she could do was want to ravish his body, and feel his hands exploring hers.

"Gary?" asked Professor Oak.

"Yeah?" he responded, his voice wavering.

Misty secretly smiled at this; she made him feel unsteady. The great, arrogant Gary Oak was taken down a notch by Misty Waterflower.

"What are you doing here in the dark?"

She blinked a few times, and then she realized the light wasn't even on. All this time they had been making out in the dark and it never even occurred to her. Well, how could she? Her mind was only thinking about Gary.

"I forgot to turn it on." What a lame excuse, but the good natured Professor Oak wouldn't have a clue of what he was really doing in the archives room.

The old man turned on the light and Misty cringed; was he going to spot her sitting in the corner? Gary moved in front of Professor Oak's view so he blocked Misty's body. The Professor took a file from the rack and smiled at Gary, saying he found what he was looking for and finally left. Misty sighed in relief. She then got up from her position and hugged Gary from behind, pressing her face against his back.

"As much as I would like to continue this," he said in a low voice. "I still have work to do today."

Misty let her arms slip off his body and she sighed pitifully. "Fine."

They both finally left the room and returned to the lab. Only, Misty couldn't stop thinking about doing it all over again with Gary. This has been a crazy day for her; waking up next to Gary Oak, kissing him, then making out in the archives storage room. What in the world was going on with her? Why was she so pulled in by his sex appeal? Misty shook her head to clear her mind a bit, and sat down on Gary's desk as always. She stared at him, studying his face and his body. His cheeks were tinted very lightly with the colour pink, and Misty had to stifle a giggle at this. Well, she probably looked much worse than him. Kissing him made her feel like her body was on fire, especially her face. She felt her heart rate speed up again just by thinking about it, so she focused her attention on her crossword puzzle, while leaning her bare feet on Gary's chair. It had always been a habit of hers, since she was sitting on his desk (they had no other chairs around), she would support her weight by putting the tip of her toes on the edge of his seat. He never seemed to mind, and she would often nudge him in his side with her toes to get his attention.

**oOo**

**Backstory:** this is set maybe a week or two after the previous scene. Lots of kissing was to be had. I was going to rewrite this scene because it sucks pretty bad, and has a lackluster ending, but I guess that won't ever happen, so here's the 'rough draft' so to speak.

Misty sat down on the couch and threw her legs over the arm, while leaning with her back against Gary. He shifted his body a bit so that she could lay against him more comfortably.

"How long are you staying this time?" he asked and started to play with her hair.

"Gotta leave tomorrow morning for some unfinished business from the conference," she said sadly.

Gary twirled an orange strand of hair around his finger and he nodded his head slightly. Misty leaned her head against his shoulder, feeling quite relaxed at what he was doing. The brunette lowered his head so that his lips were next to her ear. She felt herself growing hot again and she slightly leaned into him.

"So this is your last day, huh," he drawled out, his breath touching her ear. Misty shivered in response. Emotions were stirring up in her again, and she wanted Gary—badly.

"I wonder what I should do on my last day," she said equally as soft as his voice from before. The girl sunk back into Gary's body and laid her face in his neck. She could feel his heartbeat pulse through his veins and smiled at the feeling.

Gary lowered his face, hovering it above her, his striking green eyes staring into her own. Misty felt entrapped in his stare, her face heating up once more. He then moved back so that he could gently place Misty's head on his lap, then bent down all the way to kiss her lips. It was her first upside-down kiss—but there had been many, many firsts this day anyway, so who cared? Misty simply responded to his gentle kiss and got more rough with him, sucking and even nipping at his bottom lip. It seemed doing it upside-down was actually quite exciting, and they both kissed each other hungrily, wanting more. Gary finally pulled away, and Misty took this opportunity to sit up straight, she pushed herself up and straddled herself on his lap, bringing her knees up to his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her face close to his ear, and found that this was the perfect position to start sucking on his neck.

A low groan escaped from Gary's lips, and she felt something twitch beneath her as her lips made contact with his delicate flesh. Liking the response she was getting from him, she buried her lips into his neck and sucked it hard. He trembled at her actions, and Misty was loving the feeling of control over his body. She used her tongue to make circles on his neck, which turned into kisses, moving upwards. Gary's hands were on her back, his fingers pressing deep into her skin, and she loved every second of it. She sucked again right underneath his jaw line and Gary moaned out loud again. This excited Misty way more than it should, and found herself getting extremely wet in her panties. Not only that, she felt something very hard pressing against her ass. To tease him even more, Misty wiggled her bottom against his lap, feeling the hard object brush against her butt cheek and kissed his neck again. The response was exactly as hoped for.

"Oh shit, Misty," he said out loud and she felt his body collapse against hers.

The redhead simply smiled seductively to him, and once more moved her bottom against his rock hard penis. Gary's hands finally left her back, and were placed upon her shoulders. He pushed her down on the couch and crawled on top of her, one of his knees in between her legs, and finally crashed his lips onto hers. Misty moaned out loud in pleasure, loving his lips on her as always. She wrapped her arms around his back and forced him to lower his body onto hers even more. He brought his tongue inside of her mouth and they engaged with each other, toying, playing, swiping, even nibbling on each other's lips. She loved being dominated by him, feeling his body against her, but she also loved the reverse, having his body tremble with pleasure because of how good she could make him feel. Gary shifted his weight, his hands were beside her head, supporting his body. In the process, his knee was brought closer to her crotch, and she felt him brush against her panties. Misty gasped, feeling a shockwave coarse through her body with the slightest touch.

Gary stopped and pulled away, staring at her with raised eyebrows. Misty looked at him with lustful eyes, and felt a bit embarrassed by what she was feeling. His arched eyebrows lowered, and the corners of his lips were pulled into a smirk. God only knows what Gary was thinking at that moment, but Misty really couldn't care less. A second later and she found out what he was planning; he had moved his knee to press up against her vagina. Misty squeezed her eyes shut and tightened her fingers into fists on Gary's back. That felt fucking awesome.

"Oh," he said in a low voice. "You like that, huh?"

Misty stared at him pointedly. Of course she did, why did he have to be so smug about it? She attempted to glare at his moment of arrogance, but only succeeded in looking like she needed him to continue what he was doing. Gary simply laughed at her attempt, then started kissing her lips again, and Misty quickly forgot her temporary anger at him. Then she felt his hands on her pants, trying to unbutton it. She broke the kiss and breathed loudly in his face.

"What are you doing?" she asked, almost in a hiss. She stared at those green and unwavering eyes, and suddenly couldn't remember what she was trying to say anymore.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he responded, and finally managed to open up the button of her hot pants. Then the zipper went down, the sound of the metal unclasping ringed through her ears.

His fingers pulled down the fabric, making room as it uncovered her blue panties—but Gary wasn't looking at them, he was busy kissing Misty's neck. She couldn't think straight anymore, his lips were on her neck, sucking the daylights out of it, and his fingers were on top of her panties, moving down. His middle finger slipped down even further, dragging it across her panties. Misty shivered in pleasure as he made brief contact with her clitoris.

Gary pressed his finger in between her wet lips and she squirmed underneath the contact. "Hmm, you're all wet," he said after breaking away from her neck. Misty then nipped his neck for being so damn cocky at this moment. This in turn made Gary yelp in pain and press harder through her panties. The girl groaned against his neck, not caring anymore, since it felt incredible that he was stimulating her vagina like that. His finger then gradually pulled away, out of her pants.

"No." The words flew out of her mouth once she felt Gary's warmth leave her crotch. He looked at her with a smirk, knowing all too well what she wanted.

"I don't want to get bitten," he said with a smirk then kissed her lips.

Misty wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him closer to her body, kissing him harder. _Fine, two can play that game, Gary._ Misty freed one of her arms and wormed it underneath his body, bringing it to his pants. When she felt the cold metal of his button touch her finger tips, she wasted no time in trying to unbutton it. Gary's lips suddenly parted from hers and he panted heavily, slowly opening his mouth to speak.

Misty gave him no time to say anything and she quickly unbuttoned his pants, zipped down the zipper, and had her hand cup the long pole sticking out of the boxers he was wearing. As soon as she touched his penis, Gary's body shook violently and he buckled against hers. He hissed at her actions and kissed her lips very roughly. Misty had no problems with this, since she liked it when he was rough with her. She then let her fingers explore his penis through the cloth of his boxers, secretly measuring the length as well. She traced the shape of it with her index finger and twirled around the tip of it, which Gary seemed to love very much, as he was groaning into her mouth and his hand was slightly pulling her orange hair. It was amazing how warm it felt, and how hard it was—it was literally sticking out vertically, right above her stomach. Misty continued tracing her fingers along the boxers, until she came across an opening, and used this opportunity to sneak her hand inside of his boxers, and finally touched his bare penis with her fingers. She wrapped her fingers against the warm and smooth skin. She tightened her grip, feeling his penis throb in response.

"Oh, fuck _me_," he said loudly after pulling away from her lips.

Misty laughed at his reaction, finding it amusing how the tables had turned and he was the one cowering under her control. He came down on her again, but kept a distance between their faces. He squeezed his eyes in pleasure when Misty pulled the skin of his penis up, finding it quite amazing how she was able to move his skin, almost as if there was an actual bone underneath it.

"M-misty," he said in a croaky voice, which Misty found particularly alluring. "We … we need to stop," he said in between breaths.

Misty looked at him with crestfallen eyes and pouted at him. "Why?" she asked, then pumped his penis once more for good measure.

"Because I want to fuck your brains out—that's why," he said harshly, his eyebrows lowering in anger.

Misty let his penis go, a bit taken aback by his behavior. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He was right, they should stop. She was way too fucking horny right now, and would have done who knows what if Gary hadn't said that.

"You're right," she said and let her other arm slip away from his body.

Gary finally crawled off of her body and sat against the couch in a normal sitting position, pushing his hard penis back in his pants and buttoning his pants closed again. Misty still lay there on this couch, with her hot pants still open and bare, and her panties soaked with her juices. She pushed herself up straight as well, closed her pants just like Gary did. However, her desire to touch him and to feel his body on her was still there. Not to mention the fact that she was still really wet.

A thought then popped in her head and she turned towards Gary. "I didn't take any more of that estrogen water, right?"

Gary cocked his head to the side and then laughed at her. "Well, I sure do hope not!"

Misty blushed a bit and looked down. "Good," she mumbled.

**oOo**

**Backstory:** oh boy, where to begin. Looooots of stuff happened, and this is actually the ending. Misty and Gary have had plenty of sex since the previous scene, and they had sort of gotten into this friends with benefits situation, where they basically went at it like rabbits all the time, but neither of them had the guts to tell the other how they felt. Both Gary and Misty tried to confess their feelings, but were thwarted each time (by Tracey, by Ash, hell, even Professor Oak), so they were at a standstill with their relationship, despite having lots of sex. Eventually, it's Professor Oak's 60th birthday (remember, it was mentioned in chapter 2, I think), and loads of familiar faces show up. Due to a lot of people finding out about Misty and Gary's new friendship, they keep teasing Misty about it at the party. They wonder why she hangs out with Gary now, and not with Ash, until Misty finally blows up after bottling up her feelings for a long time.

"Because!" yelled Misty hotly, her face turning red. Then, at the top of her lungs, she screamed; "because I love Gary Oak!"

Everyone looked over at her, everyone's eyes were staring at her. Misty's head now resembled a ripe tomato; she was embarrassed as hell. She then dared to look up and see Gary's expression. It pretty much matched her own. He was furiously red, and he tried to hide underneath the table when people started to look at him.

"Gee Misty, I had no idea you were in love with Gary!" piped up May.

Misty sharply turned her head to May to glare at the girl. "Well, I do! Now everyone knows and you can all stop bothering me about it!" She then stormed away from the party. Partly because she was embarrassed that everyone knew, and partly because she didn't want to face Gary after blurting out that she was in love with him.

But Gary followed anyway, and when Misty noticed, she ran. It turned into an odd chase, where Misty kept running further and further away from the party, and wished she could also run away from her feelings, her shame and her embarrassment. This is not how she imagined she'd confess to Gary, in a fit of anger. No, definitely not. But he heard it all the same, and now he's _chasing_ her! Oh, that couldn't be good.

"Stop avoiding me you damn woman!" yelled Gary, still chasing her.

"Then stop following me!" she yelled back, trying to escape from him.

"Fine, I'll let you run away," he said curtly, then stopped in his tracks.

Misty looked back and slowed down her pace when she noticed he really had stopped chasing her. Their eyes locked and Misty quickly averted her eyes, a blush appearing on her cheeks.

"I just want you to know …" he then coughed loudly in his hand. "That I love Misty Waterflower!" he said in an outrageous loud voice, mimicking her earlier confession.

The blood shot up to her ears and Misty waggled on her spot, not quite knowing what to do anymore. Gary on the other hand seemed rather composed and sure of himself, save the red face he had. She then brought her hands to her ears.

"Well, you don't have to yell it!"

Gary laughed loudly at that. "I couldn't let someone best me at a confession, now could I?"

"Arrogant as always," she replied with a smirk.

"Now, can I come closer to you without you running away?" he said this while walking towards her.

Misty stood still. "Maybe." But then, without thinking, she ran towards him and jumped on him. She meant to tackle him to the ground so she could be on top of him, but he had a rather sturdy and heavy body, so all she managed to do was make him stumble back a few steps before he caught her in his arms and kissed her gently on the lips. She was definitely in love with Gary Oak, and her confession was true to her heart. To hear him utter those words back, it made Misty feel complete. She parted from his lips.

"Are you sure you're not lying to me?" she asked, not quite one hundred percent sure he was being honest.

Gary bumped his forehead against her. "What are you, stupid? Can't even tell the difference between an honest confession and an obviously fake one? I'm hurt, really."

"I don't know, I was thinking Gary Oak was too arrogant to love anyone but himself."

Gary then brought his lips closer to her ear. "I love you," he whispered, sending chills to run down her spine.

Misty wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled her closer to his own ear. "And I love you too," she whispered back. They then shared another passionate kiss together.

The brunette pulled back and smiled at her. "I was wondering when you were going to say it. God knows how long we've been attacking each other's bodies for a while."

Misty blushed a bit and pressed her face against his chest. "Well, you didn't say anything either!"

"I'm arrogant—what's your excuse?" he mumbled.

"I don't know … I guess I never really came to terms with it until now?"

Gary shook his head and laughed at her, but still held her close. "Seriously?"

"I've always had a crush on you … I just didn't realize it turned into … this."

"Oh really, you had a crush on me, eh? When did that start?"

Misty snorted and hit his chest with her hand. "Like I'd tell you."

Gary nuzzled his face in her neck and gave her a few kisses, which made Misty's eyes flutter close. "I'll tell you when I realized I had one on you; it was when we first saw the Bellossoms dance together."

Misty's face went even more red at this revelation. "Wait, does that mean you already liked me before I went all … you know … that one time." She couldn't get herself to say it out loud anymore, since it was so embarrassing for her.

"That time you drunk a bottle of estrogen hormones?" he said happily and Misty pulled his hair in return. "Then simply ravished me?" She kicked his shins and pulled away from him. "Ah come on, I was only teasing you," he said with a laugh, then wrapped his arms around her from behind. "To be fair, I really wanted to jump on you at that time."

"Hhmm," she said thoughtfully with a smile.

"But I had the decency to realize you were not in your right mind and to withhold from any things I might have done to you."

"Why thank you Gary, you're such a gentleman."

"That doesn't mean I didn't masturbate about it afterwards though," he said with a huff.

"You are such a pervert!" she said with a red face and then turned around to face him again. "But you know what—so am I," she said with a grin and kissed him. Gary happily returned the kiss.

"Can we go home now?" he asked. "Because I think I might pin you down on the grass right here if we don't hurry up."

Misty licked her lips and smiled seductively at him. "Is that such a bad idea?"

Gary then pushed Misty hard to the ground and crawled on top of her. "I guess not," he said then kissed her hungrily again.

When they met, he poisoned her, drowned her, and in return she crashed his car, found out about all of his secrets, kissed him under the influence of estrogen, and together they made a lot of memories. Gary Oak, he's not bad. Not bad at all. But when he's with her? Then he's great.

* * *

><p>So, that's it. The end. I apologize for not writing a proper story, and only giving you bits and pieces I had written two years ago, but it is better than nothing, right? Oh, and a little side story that I never managed to write at all; remember in one of the scenes where Gary says he couldn't have been friends with Misty when they were kids? Well, I had written Gary as having a crush on Misty at that time, he was hopelessly charmed by her feisty temper and her orange hair. He hated that she traveled with Ash and not him (and he was also embarrassed by his crush), and this would have explained how he was always picking on Ash, but never directly insulted Misty. He said they couldn't have been friends, because Gary wanted to be more than friends. Over time, the crush faded away, but his old feelings definitely returned with a force when Misty helped him out with his research.<p>

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading.

Ah what the heck, here's a little extra, it's Gary's PoV when Misty returned from training in Sinnoh. Enjoy that, too.

**oOo**

He felt her gaze on his back for a while now. He tried very hard not to let it show, not to let her know how nerve wrecking it really was. She had finally come back, and when he woke up right next to her, it was almost as if it were a dream, too good to be true. Except it was true, and he wanted nothing more than to stay as he was, and just stare at her while she slept. Except he couldn't do that, it was impossible.

"Good morning!" Misty suddenly said.

"Morning," he replied in a scruffy voice, caught off guard for a second.

Gary heard her sit down at the kitchen table, and he was too much of a chicken to turn around and actually face her. She had no idea just how nervous he really was at the moment. He hadn't seen her in a month, and it stirred up all kinds of things inside of him when he woke up to find her in his bed.

"Want some eggs?" he asked after a while of silence.

"I didn't know you could make eggs," she replied. "Since when can you make them?"

Feeling a little bit more confident, he gave her a nervous smile as he flicked back his head. "Since you left and I missed your food." At least he could admit to missing her food without sounding stupid.

Misty finally got up and slowly walked over towards him, and he could literally feel her stepping inside of his personal space as she did so. He still didn't look at her, not even when she came to stand right next to him to see if he was really cooking. It was all he could do to hold the spatula in his hands and tighten his grip on it until his fingers became white from lack of blood. When her shoulder accidentally bumped against his chest, he didn't know who jerked back first; him or her. His eyes briefly looked at her, and it seemed she thought she was the one that jerked back, good, she didn't have to know what kind of effect she had on him at the moment.

"I can't believe it, but you're actually making a decent looking egg," she said softly. Her voice was ringing through his ears like music, he had really missed hearing her voice from up close.

Trying to shake off the feeling of losing control, he did a very Gary-like thing. "You better believe it!" he said proudly, puffing up his chest to emphasize his point.

He had to draw back a breath when Misty's slender fingers softly grabbed his shoulder, making them drag across his skin as she bent down to smell the egg. That tiny little gesture sent sparks flying through his body, and it turned him into stone, he didn't know how to react to this anymore.

"Hhmm, smells really nice," she said seductively. That voice sent chills down his back, how could she sound so darn sexy? Misty pulled back and gently let her fingers trail over his shoulders before she pulled away completely. Gary's body shivered when she finally left, and hoped to God she hadn't seen him do that, see her have this effect on him. Any kind of touch from her sent him wild, even her voice was driving him crazy. Trying to steady his thoughts now that she had gone back to her seat, he finally remembered a question he wanted to ask her.

"When did you get back? I thought you weren't getting back until tomorrow." Why couldn't she have come tomorrow? Tomorrow, at least he was prepared, today, he was caught off guard so much, it made him feels all these weird things and think all these weird thoughts.

"I got back this morning, I wanted to surprise you by being here early."

He squinted his eyes. "Well, you certainly did surprise me," he mumbled under his breath. He definitely did not expect to wake up to seeing Misty in his bed. Then he had the gall to hug her and fall asleep again. What was he thinking?

"Aren't you going to ask me how my trip went?" she asked, feigning hurt.

Gary spun around to face her, and leaned against the kitchen counter. "How was your trip?" he asked nonchalantly, or at least, hoped that she perceived him as this, since on the inside he was nervous just by facing her. For a split second, he wished he hadn't come down half dressed, and wished she hadn't either, since her milky white legs were very much visible under the kitchen table.

"It sucked," she replied annoyed.

"You shouldn't have gone then." No really, she shouldn't have left him at all. It was as if he was experiencing withdrawal symptoms now that she was back again.

"I couldn't very well deny the Pokemon League!"

"You have every right to deny something." Though not him, she could never deny him.

"Not if I want to keep my position as a gym leader."

Gary then finally turned his attention to the egg again, after staring for too long at her legs that were screaming for attention. It was silent for a moment, but he was still on edge. So he decided for some small talk. "Aside from lover-boy Ash, did you meet any other guys there?"

"Why? Jealous?" An instant reaction, she was taunting him.

The brunette slipped the finished egg on a plate and slid it across the kitchen table towards Misty. "In our videocalls you sometimes get interrupted by some guy calling your name," he replied. Whoever interrupted his videocalls with her had to die a violent death, that's what he thought.

"Oh, that's just Brawly," she said offhandedly, then took the fork and tore off a piece of the egg. "We had a lot of assignments together, so he kept bugging me every time I was slacking off." Misty then popped the piece in her mouth and chewed on it.

As she slowly chewed on the piece of egg, making her lips seem so juicy and seductive, Gary scratched his throat and hoped she could say something to lighten the mood. After a while of chewing and not saying anything, he became a bit impatient.

"Well?" he pressed on.

Misty swallowed. "Well what?"

"Who was it again that said something about it only being polite to say the food was good?" He pointed his index finger at the egg.

"Oh! Yes, it's not that bad."

Gary turned around to prepare for his own breakfast. "Good."

"So," she started. "What have you been doing while I was gone?"

_Aside from thinking about you every day, and wishing you were here? Then jerking off to you while feeling horrible about it, and being jealous of every single guy you met over there? You have no idea how much I wanted to strangle Ash with my own two hands._

"You mean, aside from learning how to cook eggs?" he asked with a chuckle, ignoring his inner monologue. "Nothing special, work as usual. You should know, we almost called every day." He wished it _was_ every day, but that didn't matter anymore, she was back, and right in front of him, just waiting for him to snatch her away.

"Right, you finished cracking that DNA, how did that go?"

"I wouldn't want to bore you with technical details, so I'll just say I'm still fine-tuning it before I present it to the other Researchers."

"You're so smart," she complimented him. "I wish I had brains like yours."

"And my good looks," said Gary with a laugh, secretly relieved that they could at least tease each other again like normal.

"Hey! Are you saying I'm not good looking?" she asked him with a fake hurt tone.

_Oh no Misty, you are sex on legs, don't ever think you're not._ "I'm saying you wish you had my good looks. After all, I'm far more attractive." He might be saying all that, but he hoped she could see that was a blatant lie. Misty had always been an attractive girl, but damn, today it was cranked up to eleven.

Gary continued making his egg, and Misty slowly ate hers. He then finally finished his own portion and came to sit at the table with her, reluctantly taking a seat next to her. Being this close to her was making his heart beat like crazy. Gary Oak was basically drooling over this girl, and he couldn't do a damn thing about it. He just hoped she didn't see through his facade.

"Did you have any fun while you were there?" he asked after a while. Gary scooted a bit further away from her when he felt his sweatpants briefly brush over her knee.

"Talking to you was the only fun thing I did over there," she said with a loud huff. "They made me work so hard on shaping up my skills, and Brawly kept annoying me with more work. It was hectic really, no time for fun."

Needless to say, Gary was very happy to hear that the only kind of fun she had was with him. For that, he overcame his weird hormones at the moment and messed up her orange hair. "Welcome back then," he said with a heart-felt smile.

And that small confidence he had at acting normal again flew out the window the minute she placed her hand on his thigh. Misty leaned closer and batted her eyelashes at him. "Did you miss me?"

Gary's leg jerked in response at the sudden contact, but he tilted his head to look at her. "Do you _want_ me to miss you?" he asked back. All he could do was notice the way her hand was on his leg, so dangerously close to his crotch area as well, and the way she was leaning over a bit so that he could stare down her shirt, and see her–

Misty suddenly gave a slight squeeze and grinned. "Maybe."

Gary coughed loudly as he felt his face starting to heat up. Great, he was blushing now! He cleared his throat to compose himself. "Then yes," he said, admitting to missing her. He wouldn't say up front on how much he missed her though. That was a secret he was taking with him to the grave.

Misty finally lifted her hand up from his thigh, and he was immediately relieved she did so, because it was really driving him crazy.

"Is it bad?" he asked once he noticed she wasn't eating.

"Oh no, I was just … thinking," she said sheepishly and finished eating her egg. The egg really wasn't bad, she could do better of course, but it tasted fine to her. "It's good, I actually like it."

"What were you thinking about?"

**oOo**

Misty clearly had no idea what kind of effect shad had on him by running her foot up and down the length of his thigh. He was already full of crazy hormones today, and then the redhead decided it was a great idea to start rubbing his leg like she usually did. Except this time, it felt a hundred times better, and for fuck's sake, it was turning him on.

Gary closed his eyes for a few seconds, almost succumbing to the feeling, then he frowned and tried to concentrate on the computer screen instead. As he started to type, he realized much of it wasn't making sense, because his mind simply wasn't there. Misty's toes were still dragging across his leg, and each time she came closer to his waist, something inside of him started to build up. By now he was starting to breathe harder, partly opening his lips because of it. Misty innocently continued touching him, and Gary finally noticed that she had managed to give him an erection.

"Misty?" said Gary in a rough voice. Misty stopped in an instant, and Gary wondered in fear if she had noticed. He cleared out his throat and his eyes briefly glanced over at her. "Could you get me some water?"

Misty gave him a small nod and finally hopped off the desk, walking away on her flip-flops. Gary sighed in relief, she hadn't noticed. But damn, this was crazy—he got turned on by her rubbing her foot on his thigh! It was insane! He glared at his pants, and willed himself for it to go down. In the back of his mind, he wondered if _he_ had taken an estrogen tonic or something, because this certainly wasn't normal.

Then he realized only a few moments ago, Misty had asked him if he had any estrogen tonics laying around. It was a completely out of the blue question, and he didn't think about it at the moment, since he was too busy ignoring the way her legs were crossed. But now that he thought about it more clearly, why did she ask him that? Gary's eyes grew wide in confused; it couldn't be that she … ? Could she possibly be feeling the same thing as he was? Could she be looking at him right now, and feeling the way he did when he saw her?

No, that would be impossible, right? Gary shook his head, but found that it might be true. He would have to find out, he would have to see her reaction to when he touched her (instead of the other way around). During all this thinking, his erection had finally gotten down, which he was pleasantly surprised with.

Not soon after, and Misty returned with a glass of water. She placed it next to him, and he noticed how she was avoiding any sort of skin contact between the two of them.

"Here you go," she said sweetly, then hopped back on the desk as usual.

Gary averted his gaze away from her and quickly took a drink from the water. He set it down after gulping down a lot of the water, and he wiped off his mouth. "Thanks." He really needed it.

There was one thing he had to find out though, the thing that really irked him. Gary had to find out about her reaction. Composing himself first before diving in, he took a deep breath, then stood up straight from his chair. Misty looked up at him, wondering what he was doing.

"Move, you're in the way," he said in a typical arrogant voice, and he bent over towards her, to reach the archive cabinet behind her.

He made sure to 'accidentally' touch the side of her neck with his hands as he reached for one of the drawers behind her head. Gary's eyes observed every movement of Misty as he did this. He saw her body tense up, and she drew back a sharp breath. Which she then let out and giggled nervously.

"Sorry, hehe," she said and moved out of the way. She suspiciously avoided his face after that, and Gary grabbed a random file out of the cabinet and went to sit back down again with his heart thumping in his throat.

He didn't imagine that, did he? She did tense up and tried to avoid suspicion by giggling, right? Gary's eyes briefly glanced over towards Misty, before returning back to the monitor. He started to type something on the keyboard, but he had no idea what he was typing anymore. Could it possibly be that Misty was affected by him too? He couldn't be too sure, this could have been an isolated incident in which Misty felt a bit shy around him, especially since it had been a month when they last saw each other.

Then again, she had no problem stroking up his leg with her toes and turning him on. Granted, she didn't know about that last part, but it was sending very mixed signals. He had to make sure, he had to touch her again. Though at the moment, he had no idea how. It was always so easy at first, gently touching her, teasing her, tickling her. These actions were like breathing to him in the past, and now it was as if everything was brought underneath a magnifying glass, and every touch was burned into his mind. He couldn't possibly touch her naturally now! Then how was he supposed to find out?


End file.
